The Zeppo Effect :   A BTVS Mass Effect Tale
by Dr Gonzo
Summary: A series of one-shots and vignettes about our favorite White Knight's quest to show the galaxy's newest hero how battling extinction level apocalypse is done with style.
1. Belated Birthday Gifts

**The Zeppo Effect - A BTVS/ Mass Effect Tale**

**Author: B.H. Ramsay**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing; I claim nothing - what will YOU get if you sue me - nothing. Consider yourself disclaimed**

**Rating: Teen**

**Pairings(s) maybe**

**Spoilers: many **

**Summary: A series of oneshots and vignettes about our favorite White Knight's quest to show the galaxy's newest hero how battling extinction level apocalypse is done with style ... well style and a little help from a few very, very powerful friends.**

***  
Choices, we all make them . good, bad, right, wrong. All the horror and all the beauty that we are capable of is because of our choices. I've learned a lot of things in my time. some lessons better then others but the one truth that I could never escape, never avoid , the truth that has stayed with me though all the tears and all the years...making choices is easy, living with them - that can be a lot harder.

* * *

"Yesterday was my birthday." Xander Harris said weakly,

"Don't speak," Dawn Summers snapped. choking back frightened sobs, not a good sign.

Xander tried to focus past the pain of the wound that was obviously killing him. He could hear other voices. No more crying or sobbing except for Dawn in fact he can hear some cries of joy.

They'd won The Brawl-for-it-all, Xander's little nickname for their pivotal battle against evil. Every major force for good finally tired of being picked off by the bad guys or watching loved ones abused and harassed. They'd all gone to war and finally after almost a year and a half of bloody drawn out conflict ... the last of the biggies was finished.

There had been casualties of course, No war is without casualties but the world was safe now, considering how many friends and allies had met **their**end, if Xander didn't make it out of this one ...well then he was in very honored company "... Gonna get me a nice table in Club Valhalla." Xander thought to himself. Hell, he'd been absolutely sure he wouldn't make it out of high school alive let alone surviving long enough to stand beside earth mightiest heroes in their darkest hour. Xander Harris was luckier by far then he had any right to expect.

"Damn it Buffy - it's Xander." Willow's voice - she was angry.

"You tried this once before," Buffy snapped back, "... You do remember what almost happened."

"Buffy, its Xander."

"You keep saying that."

"... Because that should be the only thing that matters. Now are you going to help me?"

"Why can't we just heal him like normal?" Buffy asked.

"Are you kidding, the weapon that did this was meant originally to kill Gods with a capital G. Even Superman would barely survive a wound from a weapon like that, never mind Xander."

"So you're going to take primal energy ..."

"The force that makes you a Slayer and allows me to use magic ... Yeah That's exactly what I want to do ... it will work Buffy. Trust me, Xander will survie this."

"...And you don't think this is going to come back and bite us in the ass?"

"Buffy we just drop kicked every dark force that has ever looked at us crosswise off this plane of existence ...you think I'm really scared of the karmic backlash for saving my friend...our friend ... the person who stood by us even when the rest of the world was going to hell ... ?"

"Enough, All right Willis I'll help."

Xander groaned, "Dawn - how bad is it?" He asked Buffy's little sister, who would have thought that relationship would end up being the one that worked out and somehow broken his curse of dangerous women and weird romances.

"Its not so bad really," She lied, "just a scratch."

"Dawn you really need to learn how to lie better, you suck really bad at it ... Damn, I hate being impaled."

Willow and Buffy were there "Dawnie," Buffy said to her sister, "I need to you go back to the base camp."

"No," Dawn snapped her voice thick with emotion, "I don't want to leave him. I want to be here."

"You can't, not for this. it's dangerous enough. Willow has a plan, if it works we'll all be joining you and if not ... you can say your goodbyes then."

"What are you going to do?"

"If Willow is right , save his life."

Xander grunted as pain shot though him. "Don't move Xander you're dying." Willow whispered, "Buffy and me - we're going to fix you, fix it so it will be like you were never hurt."

"Bad Idea guys, we don't screw with the universe anymore, Remember. It gets really pissed with us when we do that."

"Shhh, you lie back, Buffy and me will handle it. It will be on us but we can't let you go. We won't let you go."

Willow's voice was echoing with power. She was speaking words ancient and powerful.

He heard Buffy now, looked into her eyes. As Willow chanted, they began to glow with power - or was that love ...for him? , it couldn't be. The universe would not play **that**joke on him now of all times.

"Think of this as a belated birthday gift Xand, happy birthday." Buffy said and kissed him softly. "Will is right Honey we can't let you go. We won't let you go. Not when we've come so far and done so much."

Suddenly the dull pain of dying was replaced by something very different and much more painful. Xander screamed and he couldn't help thinking that his scream sounded odd as if it was echoing down though a long long hallway he might never see the end of.

* * *

183 years later ...

* * *

As Commander Joan Shepard opened the door of the latrine the foul stench inside hit her. "Sargent Harris could I have a word." She gasped.

"If that word is gross you won't be the only one who's used it." Harris shouted from the depths of the building. She watched as his tall lanky form detached itself form the shadows. He looked like he did in all the vids, youthful face, athletic build ...she had even seen an extranet picture file that showed him posed without his shirt on. His body was covered by a web of scars that read like a historian combat primer.

"Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. You hear about us out here yet."

"Co-developed Deep Scout Frigate, Turian-Human hybrid... Shepard , You fought at Torfan right? You led the final assult on the slaver base there."

"...and?" Shepard waited expectantly, by now she'd heard all the comments, all the theories and even the not so subtle accusations and self-righteous posing whenever her actions during the Siege of Torfan came up for discussion.

"...And nothing, I'm not a big fan of slavery myself and I'm told Batarians don't exactly truck with the whole rules of engagement jive."

"They have Rules of Engagement," Shepard replied, "... So do I - I just prefer my rules to theirs."

Xander tossed a scrub brush over his shoulder with a casual flick of his wrist. The brush hit the bucket dead center dropping in.

"Nothing but Net." he muttered, he didn't so much as glance in the direction of the target. "Welcome to Fort Chuckles, Commander." He said to his visitor.

"Thanks, I wondered why you were cleaning latrines but if you called Fort Charles - Fort Chuckles infront of Gunny Ellison it makes sense."

"Oh this, no - Ellison has me conducting Hostile Environment Exercises, apperently if you can survive your unit getting eaten by Thresher Maws they think you can teach Assault and Survival Techniques to the FNG's." Xander gestured to the latrine, "This Commander Shepard, is what happens when you play Skllyian Five Poker against someone who I've begun to think is actually FROM Elysium."

Shepard held up a PDA, information scrolling across the amber screen. "Captain David Anderson is going to ask you to join the crew of the Normandy, How do you feel about ditching the latrines and getting some space time again."

Xander grimaced, "I can pound ground with the best of them ma'am."

Shepard smiled and shook her head, "There may be the occasional bit of ground pounding sailor but its your technical expertise we really need. We need a man at the tech station feeding Chief Engineer Adams real time data so he can make sure engines are operating at peak efficiency. Normandy's also got some big guns and I'd like to make sure Joker doesn't have to divide his attentions between flying the ship and shooting."

"I like big guns I cannot lie." Harris with with a blank look.

"Slow down there Tex," Shepard replied, "As a covert recon vessel our aim is to avoid engagement as much as possible."

"...Requiring use of Normandy's IES stealth systems. I'm told that when the heat sinks are full the ship's interior temperature is somewheres just south of an oven. quite the design flaw don't you think?"

Shepard nodded, "Your average Turian would feel so at home in a sauna or steam bath its not funny, complaining about the ship being too hot would seem ..."

"...Like more whining from the Earthers, " He assumed a mocking voice, "Oh the cutting edge ship is too hot wha, wha, wah."

Shepard laughed, she was finding that laughter came easily around this crewman. "...And now the boring stuff, Akuze - Anderson asked me to ask you so I'm asking."

"You know the same story everybody else does. Colony went dark - nobody knows why - Fifty Marines hit dirt to find the answers and boom - As first species encounters go; it ranks high on the scale of suck."

"When they found you, you were half starved... and talking to people who weren't there."

"At first it was just the other guys in the unit, after a while I started hallucinating people from back home. People I haven't seen ...in a long, long, time. It sounds crazy but it kept me going. talking to them it...kept me sane."

"Maybe even kept you alive."

"It takes a lot to kill me Commander." Xander looked at the Shepard's raised eyebrow, "That's not me being arrogant exactly - I just mean I've become very good at staying alive." Harris amended quickly.

"At least you didn't become some boring god boy afterward."

"... Let's just say I've learned that believeing only in what you can see or touch or taste is not a wise plan ... the universe is just waiting to kick people like that in the ass. I've spent too much time getting my ass kicked. I don't like it."

"It says here you're well educated - degrees in a dozen different fields." Shepard scrolled down the list, "Mechanical engineering, anthropology, linguistics ... what was basket weaving and thumb twirling full?"

"Have you seen the reading list for basket weaving? Trust me, studying a thousand year old dead language and culture is way easier."

"You can even speak several alien languages without the aid of the translator." Shepherd marveled.

Xander thought about correcting her, he didn't just speak a few alien languages ... something about the energies that sustained him over these last two centuries allowed him to speak them all.

"So Why would a brainiac want to serve and then seemingly avoid officer training?" Shepard asked.

Harris startled at her use of that word. Had it really been so long that people no longer remembered the demented twelfth level artificial intelligence. He noticed she was looking at him and he remembered he had not actually responded to her question. ... too many memories way, way too many he thought before answering her

"Cause I want to work for a living ma'am." Xander said "So can I ask, did you really manage to flip a Mako I mean really flip it?

Shepard rolled her eyes, "Do they still talk about that?" she sighed.

Xander snorted, "You rolled a vehicle that was **designed**- specifically - so that it would not roll over and you wonder why anyone still remembers it, you have to be kidding me?" The Serviceman laughed, "There's rumor anyone willing to duplicate the feat will win an appointment with the Asari Consort, paid for by the enlisted guys."

"Were you hoping to collect?"

"Have you seen an asari? they are all like an eleven on the hot scale and you can find one shaking her ass on a stage of every night club and strip bar in civilized space and beyond yet they have ONE who people are willing to wait for months just to talk to ... there has to be a reason for that."

"You do realize Asari don't JUST produce strippers and good time girls. they're well represented in every major mercenary group in operation today. And those are the ones who don't make the cut as Asari Commandos."

"Rumor has it they even have an elite sect of cops - Justicars I think they're called, the training for that carries a pretty scary mortality rate." Harris sighed, "You know. with my track record I'd meet one of them or a Commando before I ever get to meet a stripper."

Shepard shook her head, typical male she thought. Still the fact he'd taken the time to learn as much about Asari culture as he had put him way out in front of must of the horn-dog males who spent their extranet access mouth breathing over the universally attractive blue alien species.

"Our navigator Jeff Moreau mentioned your name." She continued, "...Says you might be the best weapons and tech guy he's ever come across."

"Joker?"

"I'm curious how would you two have ever met, you're ground side - he's flight."

"Friend of the family ... One of his cousins used to date a very old and dear friend. before we ...lost touch."

"Is Joker from the Santa Angeles Megaplex?"

"Huh?"

"Your file says you come from Santa Angeles. I assume you come from the megaplex."

"I grew up in Sunnydale."

"The lake?"

Xander blinked before sucking his teeth in annoyance, "Yeah Sorry about that I mean I grew up NEAR Sunnydale."

"Your parents were anti establishment too huh?, That was why mine moved out to the Traverse and settled on Mindior."

"Ouch, I can see why you're touchy about the whole Torfan thing If I'd watched my neighbours being stuffed into slaves pens It might not go well if I found myself fighting the guys I blamed for that."

"There were humans involved with the raid against Elysium and I killed a more then a few human pirates when we raided Torfan." Shepard gave a dismissive wave,"Anyway, unless you have other plans, Captain Anderson will take care of the paperwork. You'll need a few days of orientation aboard ship then its showtime. I'm hearing we'll be posting picket duty maybe with the 63rd Scout Flotilla under Admiral Mikhailovich which means they'll have us staring at the Terminus Systems all day long."

"Oh if we get out to Omega we should hit The Afterlife - great little club, stay away from the drinks in the lower bar though. The Batarian down there serves a drink that goes down like ground glass."

* * *

... And that was how it began just another routine recruit for what was supposed to be a routine mission. of course they always say that before a mission starts. Its the weird stuff that happens during the mission and how you respond that make it not so routine.


	2. Citadel: Save The Quarian

**_AN- thanks for all the favouriting and alerting - huge thanks to Reikson who's swift and enthusiastic bata reading skills have already made this much better then it has any right to be Now on with the show._**

* * *

_Our routine mission started with a pick-up on Eden Prime. Kaiden Alenko and I deployed to the surface to retrieve an ancient artifact of a long dead race, The Protheans. I figured Kaiden's powerful biotic abilities might come in handy, as it turns out, I was right. Instead of a nice peaceful farming colony, we walked into a war zone. The colony was under attack by the Geth, an army of synthetics lead by a Turian named Saren Arcterius, an agent of the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance or SPECTRE for short._

_In the confusion, Kaiden and I rescued an Alliance Marine, Ashley Williams. Her unit had been massacred by the Geth. leaving her the only survivor. I watched her face as the Geth turned several of them into mindless zombie-like creatures, Husks. Stripped of all humanity, little more then raw animal instinct warped to serve Saren's demented will. I figured it was even worse for Williams. She'd served beside these people and now was forced to put them out of their misery or die by their hands._

_I tried to stop Saren from escaping but was hit by some kind of discharge from the Prothean artifact. The blast uploaded a vision of war and impending doom into my mind. We returned to the Citadel to inform the council of what happened and demand they do something about their out of control Spectre. They flatly refused to even believe their best and most well known operative could be involved in the attack against the human colony. Since the Council refused to do anything without tangible proof of the threat Saren posed I was going to need hard evidence._

_Xander often says "Fate has a way of handing you a gimme every once in a while." I'd be inclined to disbelieve him except it turned out he was right_

* * *

The neon lights of the lower words made a nice counter to Xander's bleak mood. Harris was grumbling as he trailed after Hobbs the Normandy's Requisitions Officer. Xander's skill with languages had won him this particular assignment. Hobbs could only speak the common trade language but it was a fairly open secret that the better discounts and "special items" were reserved for those customers familiar with local languages and customs.

They'd stopped close to another of the station's omnipresent keepers, strange bio-mechanical creatures that silently maintained the Citadel's many functions. They often seemed completely unaware of the many alien creatures that surrounded them, often going about their tasks in seeming ignorance they were sharing the space with anyone at all. Xander rebalanced several packages in his over burdened hands.

"OK, Hobbs, seriously how much shopping do you really need to do?" he whined.

"Commander Shepard said you'd help me pick up a few items from the wards."

"A few Hobbs ,,, a few ... not the entire damn ward. I think we hit every merchant in this entire station." Harris complained. "Do you really need to buy this much stuff?"

"The Gunnery Chief expressed some ... dissatisfaction ... with my selection of mods." Hobbs answered.

"So it's Ashley I have to blame for the fact I'll be needing the icy-hot when we get back." Xander grumbled.

"It's a miracle I can find any decent mods at all." Hobbs replied thoughtfully, "Fist controls the local trade in illegal weapon mods."

"Anyone with the balls to refer to themselves seriously as Fist - needs to have their asses kicked just on general principle." Xander replied before being distracted by a beeping on his comlink. when he answered, deafening gunfire could be heard over the audio link. There was a battle going on somewhere.

"This is a general distress to any Normandy personnel in the vicinity of the lower wards." It was Shepard's voice."Come on, answer me dammit."

"Shepard? its Harris, what's your position - what's going on?"

"Harris! Never mind where I am. I need you to get to the alleyways near Chora's Den - on the double Mister. You'll find a Quarian civilian carrying precious cargo. You'll secure that cargo and protect the civilian at all costs."

Xander shoved all of the heavy packages in his hands into Hobbs' startled grasp. "I'm on my way Commander." he answered running full tilt across the ward past several startled passersby. He noticed Ashley and Kaiden coming down the stairs from a club with the annoyingly upbeat name of Flux. They were already at a full run.

"You heard I take it." He shouted as the three fell in step.

"It was on wide band broadcast," Kaiden snapped "I think people back on Earth heard."

The trio ran through the crowded wards and down a flight of stairs, barreling though a door. Kaiden was about to cross a bridge stretching over a vast chasm. On the other side was Chora's Den, gentleman's club and rumored HQ for much of the crime that transpired aboard the Citadel. Gunfire could be heard coming from the seedy club along with cries of pain and torment that were fair indicators that Shepard was doing what she did best ... but Xander veered right heading up a narrow flight of steps.

"Where are you going, Fist's club is this way?" Kaiden pointed.

Xander didn't even break stride, "The Quarian's in the alleyway and the alleyway is **this** way."

"You said you've never been to the Citadel before." Williams snapped as She and Kaiden switched direction to dash after him.

"I haven't, Shepard made me help some Salarian with his Keeper scanning project, had me crawling though every damn nook and cranny in this place."

They burst through a door and charged down a shadowy hallway arriving at bizzare scene. Three assassins in custom body armor menacing a young looking Quarian. She ducked away from them, using a concussion grenade to scatter the group of thugs.

Xander brought up a pistol, firing at one of the Salarians. The mercenary's head rocked backward from the impact of Xander's shots. The assassin dropped in a heap on the deck floor. His fellow Salarian partner chattered angrily at Harris before pointing his omni-tool sheathed arm at him. The suddenly overheated pistol in Xander's hands clicked uselessly, Xander swore in ancient Sumerian as he dived for cover.

Ashley slid smoothly into cover, her trusty assault rifle unfolding from its inactive state like a deadly rose in her hands. The Lancer screamed fire through the hallway, mass accelerated gunfire pounding on the remaining salarian's chest, knocking him to the ground, the rifle's modded rounds sparking as they skidded across the merc's kinetic barrier.

His Turian buddy scrambled for shelter desperately trying to avoid being chewed to ribbons by Ash's gunfire. Ashley switched back and forth between both mercs keeping them cowering behind a keeper who tapped away at its console blissfully ignoring the firefight going on around it.

Kaiden gestured, the blue fire of a biotic field swirling around him. The Salarian Thug was picked up and slammed with unforgiving force into a bulkhead. The kinetic barrier of the merc's hardsuit sparkled briefly before failing. The merc panicked stabbing uselessly at his hardsuit controls trying to get his shield back up. Ashley smiled grimly as she aimed a burst of AR fire that caused the salarian to dance backward sprawling like a rag doll.

The suddenly outnumbered Turian concentrated his gunfire on the Quarian again who angrily returned fire Instead of cowering, launching blasts of fire from the shotgun in her hands.

Xander tapped at the omnitool on his wrist, His earlier trips through the Citadel's hallways and corridors had let him know how sensitive the local environment was to being sabotaged. Pointing the tool at a service conduit behind the Turian, Xander watched with satisfaction as the coolant system overloaded and a pipe exploded spewing liquid gas all over the merc flash-freezing both his exo-suit and naturally toughened flesh underneath. The merc cried out in pain even as The Quarian racked another round in her shotgun firing at the mercenary. The Turian's armor shattered and burst open. The Quarian's following shots hitting him solidly leaving him dead on the floor.

"That damn Fist I knew I couldn't trust him." The Quarian snapped angrily in the strange mechanically-assisted phasing unique to all Quarians.

Shepard finally arrived, her armor smelling of smoke and battle.

"Don't worry about Fist," Shepard was saying, "he got what was coming to him."

"You missed the party." Xander pointed out dryly.

"I had a party of my own to get out of, over at Fist's place," Shepard riposted, grimacing.  
"You know how it is. You make a big enough impression on people and they just  
don't want you to leave. Thank God I had some backup."

At her heels, the blue armored Turian Xander had seen lingering outside the Citadel Council Chambers, Garrus something-or-other and a giant of a Krogan. This one had been at Citadel Security HQ Xander had heard him called Wrex - some kind of Bounty Hunter. Xander knew without asking that the station's population in paid thugs had taken a severe dip in the last few minutes.

"We should have tried to take him alive." Garrus was complaining. "What he knew about local crime could close half the open cases on C-Sec's books."

"The Shadow Broker paid me to kill Fist." Wrex replied, "I always fulfill my contracts. Besides if Shepard doesn't have a problem with it, why do you care C-Sec-boy?"

"Fist is dead?" The Quarian asked, "then I guess there's two things I owe you for, who are you?"

"Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance, I'm looking for evidence against Saren, evidence I'm told you have."

"Tali, Tali Zorah nar Rayya." The Quarian answered .

With introductions out of the way the group marched back up toward the presidium and Ambassador Udina's office.

"Not to be the voice of gloom and doom," Xander muttered to Shepard, "but I'm guessing Ambassa-dork Udina will be a little upset with us, and that C-Sec Dude, the one in charge ... did not strike me as the kind of guy who likes it when people go all vigilante on his watch."

"His name is Pallin - Executor Pallin," Garrus hissed. "and no, you do not get to be head of C-Sec by looking the other way when 'upstart aliens' shoot up the wards and kill random thugs. You'd think considering how much he hates the SPECTRE's he'd be happy to see one brought down,"

Shepard sneered, "If this Quarian's evidence can really nail Saren, I could give a crap what a rule book quoting bureaucrat and a disingenuous smooth talker have to say about HOW I got it."

Garrus' eyes flared and Xander could tell the young turian had just fallen in love or at least met the person he would be modeling his life after. Xander also noticed Kaiden noticing Shepard and Garrus. A slightly annoyed eye twitch and grimace the only sign of the biotic's jealousy. Xander gave a silent prayer of thanks to whatever Gods still listened that he'd apparently dropped **his** notorious habit of falling for unattainable women. The line forming to win Shepard's affections was obviously getting a little crowded as far as Xander could tell.

Xander shrugged and dropped back to fall in step with the young Quarian.

"Thank you as well for your help." she whispered, Xander nodded.

"I oughtta be thanking you, you got me out of a particularly nasty situation. Our requisitions officer had me running errands." Xander shuddered, "I really hate shopping."

"I have to admit I find all this use of credits to administrate the distribution of gods to be a little strange " Tali murmured.

"What, your people don't buy or sell things?"

"Back on the flotilla, when someone no longer needs something he places it in the central market aboard his or her ship. Whoever does need it can simple take it. Within reason of course, food and medicines are strictly controlled but everything else is shared among us."

"So how's a girl just off the flotilla end up in a alleyway with murderous thugs?"

"I stumbled across evidence of this Saren's activities. I didn't even know he was a SPECTRE until I arrived at The Citadel and people started trying to kill me. In hindsight maybe trying to trade with The Shadow Broker was a bad idea."

"Taking on local crooks, dealing with shadowy information dealers and pretty good with a shotgun - Daddy must be so proud."

Tali shivered, "I doubt it, if father knew I was involved in any of this he'd go crazy ... At least a long and drawn out lecture; Then punishment detail scouring engine grime or maybe realigning the power couplings?"

"How bad can that be?"

"There are several hundred ships in the Quarian Flotilla, father would expect me to help maintain them all."

A huge smile spread across Xander's face "Daddy issues as well? Tali Zorah I think you and I are going to have a whole lot of laughs."

* * *

_... With Tali's evidence, pulled from the memory files of a disabled Geth, we could finally link Saren to the attack on Eden Prime. But the Council was still reluctant to expend their full military might on capturing their rouge SPECTRE._

_Their solution to the problem - make me a SPECTRE, The first human one._

_I now had extra-territorial authority to go wherever I wanted and do whatever it took to take down Saren. It was everything I could have dreamed of ... leave it to Harris to put a damper on my joy by reminding me of an ancient bit of wisdom he says he swears by. - Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it._


	3. Citadel: Asari Consort

**AN - Thanks for your continued support and to Reikson who helped make this much better**

* * *

"Harris, I need you for a errand." Shepard shoved a data pad into his hands. "I need you to run that over to the ambassadorial suites. You're looking for a Elcor named Xeltan, he'll be the one whining about the Asari Consort."

"Why me?" Xander asked suspiciously.

"...Because you're a valuable part of my team and the only one I can trust with an important job like this."

Xander nodded. "...Right, and the real reason is...?"

"Liara pulled a hissy fit in the middle of the Consort's office and she's been getting positively bitchy about the fact I'm even doing Sha'ira a favor at all."

"Aha, so you and the good Doctor..."

Shepard shook her head, "Definitely not right now and probably not if I go anywhere near Sha'ira's office again." Noticing the amusement on his face, she hissed, "...and don't think that the irony of this situation has not dawned on me. "

"So a spiritualist-slash-psychologist and high-end escort wanted a favor from you and you're delegating that task to me so you can keep your girlfriend happy?"

"No, I'm delegating the task to you because I'm your superior officer, which means I can order you to risk your life. Besides, You were the one that said you wanted to meet the Consort, anyway."

"Wait a minute, don't tell me that the great Commander Shepard is scared of a hundred-six year old bookworm." Xander snickered.

"That hundred-six year old bookworm threw a Krogan BattleMaster into a reinforced bulkhead hard enough to dent it." Shepard growled.

"Oh, come on. You can't tell me that Wrex didn't have that one coming," Xander snickered.

Wrex's constant needling of the Asari Scientist had finally bubbled over into a frustration-fueled demonstration of why the Asari were both feared and respected for their biotic prowess. Even Wrex, once he'd recovered consciousness, had applauded her finally standing up to him. Still, everyone was thankful that the both of them had taken to staying a deck apart from each other at all times.

Xander sighed. "Fine. Just call me Mister Step-and-Fetch."

Shepard nodded as Xander headed toward the embassies, dodging past some C-Sec Officer arguing with some Hanar. The jellyfish was apparently preaching illegally and there was something about evangelical permits... where were the Turians when mankind need them? A couple thousand years of bloody history could've been avoided by licensing and controlling religious expression.

Xander headed up a flight of stairs past Udina's office and into the shared space of the Elcor/Volus embassy. As promised, he saw the huge elephantine form of an Elcor complaining to his ambassador.

At least, he assumed that it was complaining. Expressing the emotional content of their speech only managed to confuse Xander, more then anything else. I mean, it wasn't like one would say "...with insincerity" before lying to you, was it?

"Frustrated: yes, human, what is it?" The Elcor asked.

"Xeltan, right? I've got proof that Sha'ira had nothing to do with your secret going public. You got ratted out by a Turian General named Septimus Oraka."

"Unbelieving; I know this Turian. The only way he could have learned my secrets is from the Consort." Xeltran moaned in that bland monotone that all Elcor spoke in.

"Actually, THIS proves that he had to go to the Shadow Broker and apparently had to trade quite a bit of info to get the details on you. You might want to take it as a compliment that the Shadow Broker places such a high value on your personal details."

"Relieved; thank you, human. Dawning shame; oh, dear, I have made several serious accusations about the Consort. With great distress; I will have to withdraw my complaint and apologize to her."

"Hopeful cheer; human, would you be so kind as to deliver this datapad to the Consort and assure her that the withdrawal of Xeltan's complaint will be formalized by the end of the day." The Elcor Ambassador moaned.

Xander hung his head and stuck out a hand, motioning for the datapad, He headed down the stairs and caught sight of Ashley hugging a middle-aged Indian man. Kaidan was standing with her.

He thought about joining him, then remembered where he was going. There was no way he could explain this assignment that was not going to bite him in the ass. He gave the three of them a wide berth as he headed across the bridge to the Consort's office.

Nelyna, a pretty Asari at the door, gestured him past. At the confusion on his face, she only said, "The Consort has been expecting you."

Curious, he headed up the stairs to the lavish offices occupied by the famous (or infamous) Asari Consort.

She was being dressed by a young human girl who blushed at the sight of Xander, hastily closing the robe and cinching it tight around the Consorts waist so quickly that Xander had almost missed the luscious curves underneath.

"Sergeant Harris, thank you for coming." she glanced at the human girl. "Thank you, Ruth. Can you give us a moment?"

The girl retreated with a nod closing the door behind her. "Lovely girl. You should speak with her some time, Sergeant. Her passion for old earth popular entertainment is extensive."

"No offense, ma'am, but I can't see myself making an appointment four months in advance just to talk about old pop culture."

Sha'ira smiled widely. "Of course. I have to say your species' view of what space would've been like is interesting. I find the movie series about that monastic warrior monk order particularly fascinating. This... Force that they speak of, is an interesting concept."

Xander gaped at the alien, "Wait, you're telling me that she turned you onto Star Wars." he asked unbelieving.

"She owns a copy of every version released. Everything from the originals in the twentieth century to the animated versions made in the mid-twenty-first century. I understand that they are somewhat controversial."

"Yeah. it was based on notes in Lucas' last will and testament. They completely changed the whole story and made some crap-tastic excuse that Lucas only made the first version the way he did because of the limitations of live actors and and live-action technology."

"So, is talking to her worth a four-month appointment now, Sergeant?"

Xander stared after Ruth longingly before something dawned on him.

"Wait a minute. How'd you know?"

"You carry your years very well, Still long lived humans are a rare enough sight that the few I've met stand out. I'm curious why you all seem so determined to remain unnoticed."

"You know who I am? ...What I am?"

Sha'ira slid up to him and plucked the datapad from his nerveless fingers. Her lips near his ear, she whispered, "There is a very good reason that I have a months-long line outside my door, Xander. A VERY good reason."

She read the contents of the pad and then tossed it aside, "I got a lovely note from Septimus and according to this, I should getting a very contrite Elcor on my doorstep very soon. Our newest Spectre does very good work. Doctor T'soni is luckier than she knows."

"You know about that too, huh?"

"I'm very good at my work, Xander. The idea that someone like the infamous Commander Shepard would care enough about someone else's feelings enough to send you in her stead says a lot about how much she's changed. And I'd just as soon like to stay on the Doctor's good side."

"Why would YOU care about being on Liara's good side?"

"You see a cloistered researcher; young, naive, and overwhelmed by the adventure that she has found herself in. But there is so much more to her. You of all people should appreciate that."

She took his arm and lead him down the stairs and through the receiving parlour. "Be patient with Chief Williams. You've been putting yourself on the front lines of a secret war between order and chaos for so long that you forget it sometimes takes a lot of faith to fight that kind of battle. Faith in yourself and in those that you fight alongside."

"I thought I was done with that part of my life." Xander muttered.

"Your course was set in stone a long time ago Xander. You have never faltered in your journey, not really, no matter how much the journey has cost you."

"S'one hell of a trip," Xander whispered.

"...And you've still a ways to go yet. Have faith in your new friends. You'll find them a match for any of those you once marched beside." Sha'ira paused, "Remember Commander Shepard might not be the kind of hero that you remember, but she can be her own kind of hero. If you let her."

Sha'ira walked him to the door just as Williams and Alenko were walking past. Ashley did a double take. What are you doing here." she asked.

Xander panicked, "I was...I was ...well ...it was like...this..." he stuttered.

Sha'ira interrupted his stammering, "Xander has been with me. Commander Shepard wanted a private matter dealt with and she discharged Xander here to see to it." The Consort explained, "Incidentally I have a reward, see what you make of it."

She dropped a small trinket into his hand closing his palm around it while she smiled at him, "It came into my possession, I have never learned it's true use or purpose but something tells me you will have much better luck finding it's owner .:. And now if you will excuse me I have other clients to see today."

"So got any more errands our fearless leader wants taken care of?" Ashley asked Xander, a wry smirk on her face.

"Well one of the gambling machines in Flux was acting all weird, funneling money to somewheres." Xander answered, "I tracked the signal all the way up here to the presidium but then Shepard grabbed me."

"Well lets go find our data thief." Ashley proclaimed and Kaiden trailed after her.

Xander looked down at the ring in his hand small innocuous. It was easy to see why Sha'ira called it a trinket. it was de-powered and an unpowered Lantern Corps ring was little more then costume jewelry.

"Hey little guy I wish I had a power battery for you. Unfortunately they all disappeared around the same time Hal and Sinestro had their last big throw down."

Xander applied his will to the ring but beyond a vauge tingling sensation the ring made no move in his palm. "Looks like your real owner is out there somewheres and if Shepard's visions are accurate, We're going to need to find them."


	4. Awkward Moments

Xander was showing Liara around the ship. Shepard would have done it but Hackett had ordered her to take care of some hostage situation. Alenko had gone along since the culprits were biotic extremists.

"i am surprised your people haven't developed a more progressive attitude about biotics thus far." Liara said in that gently chiding tone Xander noticed many Asari used when speaking to pretty much every other species in the galaxy.

"Well we've only had biotics for about thirty years." Xander answered, "I mean would you believe that less then a few hundred years ago we were still locking people up for having minor genetic abnormalities. I mean we even used to use them as a form of cheap labour. I'd be ashamed of our species if I thought something like that still went on today." He gave Liara a meaningful stare.

Liara wasn't so closeted she had never heard of Ardat-Yakshi or how those who had the condition were treated, if you could call choosing between a life of imprisonment or death at the hands of a Justicar, treatment. She recalled Shepard mentioning Harris was very well read for a human, apparently he was very, very well read.

Xander for his part silently thanked Dawn Summers again as he often did whenever he was able to make use of the vast well spring of knowledge she'd encouraged him to acquire. You could never tell when knowing obscure facts about a species considered to be socially superior would let you win socially awkward arguments.

"So Shepard took Lieutenant Alenko along with her?" Liara asked hoping to change the subject.

"OH yeah Shepard's hoping Kaiden can talk the biotics down ... otherwise she'll go with plan B."

"Excuse me, plan B?"

"I believe the Asari equivalent would be Kill-Them-All-And-Let-The-Goddess-Sort-It-Out. Anyway here we have the cargo hold and of course your equipment locker." Xander gestured , "Note the lovely and scenic view of the MAKO. Hobbs will set you up with some away mission clothes and Chief Williams will set you up with some hardware."

Several crew members gave the Asari scientist a wide berth nor did they even look at her as they reported in "Sargent, repair teams have finished fixing any damage we picked up on Therum - it was mostly superficial."

Xander's eyes narrowed, "Mostly? mostly gets us dead when a hairline fracture ruptures while we're at FTL or on a reentry vector. How's about you check again and see if you can get me a definitive yea or nay so We can fix any problems BEFORE we are spread like thin jam across every LY between here and the Terminus Systems." Harris hissed.

The men saluted sharply and scuttled off.

Liara watched them leave. "Your crewmates are uncomfortable with me Sargent Harris."

"It's just Xander Doc and don't worry about it. The Boss trusts you so that's should be good enough for everybody else."

Garrus caught sight of them and stomped over to Xander gesturing wildly. "What did you do to the Mako I had the suspension calibrated perfectly - perfectly."

"Relax Cuttlebone," Wrex laughed, as he joined them. "your precious tank did it's job pulling our quads out of the fire. quite literally in fact."

Xander bleached, "Wrex? we agreed we weren't going to discuss this in front of Garrus."

"You and Williams agreed, Shepard and I - not so much."

Garrus rounded on the Krogan. "By the Spirits, Please tell me he didn't actually drive the thing INTO a volcano ... Please?"

"Look Garrus," Xander explained, "we were surrounded by Geth, the weapons had overheated and there were these two armatures baring down on us. I figured large vehicle - high speed - dangerous environmental hazard behind the enemy - what could go wrong?"

Garrus gaped at Xander in disbelief, "You crashed the MAKO INTO a Geth armature?"

"Two Geth Armatures," Wrex laughed, "Then drove them both into a lava pool - managed to stop the tank just before we hit the magma. That move alone would earn you a evening in Shiagur's bed."

Xander paused, "OK I know Shiagur was a female warlord but I have to ask , scale of one to ten - how hot was she?"

"Easily a Ten Boy you think anything less and she could lead hundreds of warriors in battle?"

Garrus snorted, "Just so you know - a ten by Krogan standards is not the same as a ten for the rest of the civilized space."

"I have never understood the unhealthy obsession males have to what is essentially a simple act of procreation." Liara muttered, to a room of blank stares.

"I'm guessing you've never done it, have you Girly." Wrex snickered.

"Of course not," Liara snapped haughtily, "such unions are special. They should be meaningful events not just ... random encounters." She shuddered in disgust at the thought.

"Spoken like a true virgin," The Krogan sneered, "well if our great leader has actually taken notice of how hard you stare at her all the time you might end up finding out why everyone obsesses over that simple-act-of-procreation."

Liara actually blushed and hurried away Wrex's laughter ringing off the deck plates.

The Elevator opened and Ashley entered the Cargo Deck. As much as he detested the white and pink colour scheme of every armor class Sirta Foundation made, Xander had to admit the Gunnery Chief did rock that outfit exceptionally well. She vanished into the cubby near her gun smithing station and when she emerged again she was dressed more causally, Xander pulled Williams aside.

"So you didn't say how the big talk went," He asked delicately.

Ashley was something of an earth first type. Not a racist exactly just uncomfortable around the Normandy's alien crew members, specifically Garrus and Wrex. She'd held her tongue as long as she could before bringing her concerns to Shepard.

"She listened to my rant, compared me to a Terra Firma party pamphlet, told me She understood my concerns then drags me planet side on a mission with the Krogan." Ash sighed, "at least I still have a job."

"Well this is a multi-species mission Ash. All of the species have directly helped the Commander at one point or another. Tali's evidence got her the goods on Saren, Wrex and Garrus have proved they'd willingly march into hell for her and Liara ..."

"... Is an Asari." Ashley said with a wry look on her face.

Xander glanced over to where Liara was holding a hard suit against herself obviously thinking of making it her regular away mission outfit.

"I'll admit you're not wrong Ash." Xander admitted, "She's an Asari but the heart wants what it wants - and when what the heart wants happens to look good in Ursa light combat armor, I can't really argue that the heart is wrong."

"Her mom is the enemy Xander, I don't care how great her ass looks in armor if your mom was responsible for aiding a terrorist I'd be a little cautious."

Xander grimaced, "If my Mother was helping a terrorist it would be more of an effort then she ever put into anything she ever did...ever," memories of his dysfunctional childhood still rankled him some two centuries after their death, "Still I heard your argument but I think its wrong."

"What the dog bear thing? let me guess ... you think I'm am a racist too?"

"No I just think you're thinking of things from an exclusively human point of view. ...for instance A Turian would agree with your tactical view of the situation. If a bear attacks you and the only way to survive is sic your dog on it and run you do it not out of hatred for the dog but because its the most efficient tactical solution ..of course they'd then bomb the forest down the roots to ensure the bear and its kin were no threat any more."

"Excuse me?

"Then there's the Salarians who would uplift and empower the other creatures of the forest to help confront the bear. Great idea until the other forest creatures then turn around and use the power they now have to become a threat as bad or worse then the bear."

"Maybe "

"Apparently the Quarian solution would be to create a synthetic dog, make it stronger, and smarter then when it's smart enough it bites you and forces you out of your home. The Asari would see you, the dog and the bear as a single entity and try and negotiate a peace between you the dog and the bear."

"Hmm thought you go with the more obvious one " Ashley snickered.

"...That would come after, once they had achieved social political dominance over the forest. Let's face it we are all more open to suggestion when the tingling naughty parts are doing the thinking."

"That's pretty big picture of you. I thought all you cared about was old vids, cracking jokes and chasing tail."

"You wound me," Xander mocked, "and here I was wondering why you seemed so charm proof."

"Look Xander I'm flattered, really I am but there are rules and this mission will be hard enough without..."

"The frat rules are supposed to keep senior officers from taking advantage of junior officers or enlisted personnel. You and I are of equal rank ...more or less."

"There's equal and then there is equal. I mean It hasn't escaped my notice she drags you everywhere."

"You said you went to Macapa Boot Camp which means you heard all the same stories I did. You want HER to drive the MAKO cause If the stories are true, if it had been her at the wheel we might have ended up IN the lava pool. Besides I'm naturally witty. Women love wit it can make up for a glaring lack of real intelligence."

They snickered together. finally Xander paused, "Look I don't know exactly why you feel a need to be the most battle hardened Nun in Citadel space but whatever the reason I'm not going to push. I've lived long enough to know the difference between a no, and not-right-now and you ma'am are definitely putting out not-right-now vibes."

Liara showed up to save him from further conversation. She was looking for mods for her weapons. Ashley looked at the Asari up and down for a moment.

"You like to burn things or freeze 'em? I mean we could go with straight weapons damage, but that's boring."

"What does the Commander prefer?" Liara asked hesitantly

"The commander likes freezing things. Me, I prefer burning 'em. You burn someone, even a glancing blow will take someone out of action. You freeze 'em, and then you have to waste an extra bullet or two to shatter them."

Xander stared at the two females, OK Ash was female Liara maintained she wasn't exactly a woman.

"Okay, I'm going to go look at my engines with their nice normal power transfer rates now, because THIS is, by far, the strangest conversation that I've had to witness in a long, long time."

What Xander didn't mention was that he didn't know whether to be aroused or frightened at how much Ashley reminded him of Faith Lahane ... well a Faith would could bullseye targets at more then a hundred meters. Still thinking of Faith made him think of Dawn. It had been a hundred and fifty years since the younger Summers death. Not a day of those years had passed he did not remember some little thing about Dawn that made him smile. Still she would have wanted him to date again. He hadn't exactly been a monk these last several decades. Still a one night stand here or there to take the edge off wasn't what he wanted.

Maybe waiting until the mission was over wasn't such a bad idea.


	5. Feros: Geth Attack

_**Continued thanks for Reikson's help and bata skills & thanks for the many kind words**_

* * *

_ExoGeni's Zhu's Hope Colony on Feros was a typical corporate colonial setup, meaning the colonists were on Feros ultimately to improve ExoGeni's bottom line. They were always under pressure to find something, anything, that would justify the incredible expense of setting up and maintaining a colony in a hostile intergalactic area. We arrived to find the colony under threat from Geth and Krogan thugs. The colonists were determined to fight for their homes and families, especially their leader Fai-Dan. I'd grown up in a colony just like this one and I'd watched it die, There was nothing I could do to save Mindoir so I was determined to do whatever it took to save Zhu's Hope._

* * *

Xander took in the destroyed room strewn with debris and the occasional body of an Exo-Geni employee not lucky enough to escape the Geth forces besieging the tower, dominating the containment room, a huge metallic claw sticking out a large bay door left open to the air. That claw anchored a Geth dropship to the side of the miles high tower. ExoGeni used the tower as their headquarters on Feros, whatever use the protheans had for the tower was a long forgotten memory. That dropship was the reason Shepard, Xander, Liara and Tali had penetrated this far into the Geth's heavily fortified position. The ship's internal systems powered a force shield that blocked off all access to Zhu's Hope and the Normandy. If they wanted to defeat the Geth or ever see their beloved ship again; the dropship would have to be destroyed and the forcefield disrupted.

"Wow Exo-Geni really spared no expense to make it look like they don't give a crap."Xander noted. his comment, sarcasm aside, had a certain honest truth to it. Somehow Xander could not make himself believe all this ruined interior had taken place in the few days the Geth had been running wild

"Colonies like this don't exist to look good Xander," Shepard responded. "... they exist to make money for the sponsoring company. Colonial Development is a huge tax dodge and everybody knows it. You slam a few billion credits into a colonial start-up, submit your expenses to the government revenue office, then you sit back and wait for your big tax refund payday."

"Surely ExoGeni must be interested in scientific discovery?" Tali asked.

Shepard snorted,"Of course they are, since Exo-Geni owns the colony anything discovered or invented because of research done here becomes ExoGeni property. If the colonists try and cash in the company sics their corporate lawyers on them. Corp Lawyers can be as bad as varren."

"You mean they're vicious or that they taste gross." Xander snorted.

"You've eaten varren meat." Liara looked at him with disgust.

"On Akuze," Xander shrugged, "and it was either eat the varren or try eating a thresher maw and varren are easier to catch."

Shepard had noted that for all the lightheartedness of Xander's tone, the man seemed to take an almost sadistic glee in killing the dog-like creatures who had the temperament of sewer rats and the size and mass of pit bull terriers.

Shepard marched ahead to collect Liara who had a habit of wandering into danger. She'd already come face to face with several Krogan mercenaries because she had been too busy cooing over every piece of Prothean architecture and design. Xander noticed Tali looking at one of several terminals he'd seen scattered around the building.

The young Quarian answered his questioning gaze. "Geth Data Nodes," She said, "they help the Geth process thousands of petabytes of information." She ran her fingers delicately over the node.

"Should I leave the two of you alone." Xander quietly mocked.

For someone who wore a full body enviro-suit, Tali Zorah's body language conveyed embarrassment surprisingly well,

"I was raised to hate these creatures." the Quarian explained, "The Geth, near-mythical figures of dread from my childhood, but the first one I'd ever been up close to was the one I disabled to get that data on Saren." She tapped at the node's holographic display. "I should see if I can access this. If the Geth had any orders from Saren some of them might still be logged in the system."

Tali looked hesitant Xander watched the young Quarian engineer, she seemed almost apprehensive .

"You OK over there Tali?" Xander asked.

"Shepard wants to get back to the Normandy." Tali answered, "Hacking this terminal might take awhile." The Quarian was a little in awe of the Commander as most of the Normandy's crew was. Something about being near Shepard brought out the need to do and be your best. even Xander occasionally felt it.

Xander wordlessly stepped up to the node and tapped at his omni-tool. "Give me a second, I'll run a decryption algorithm "

Tali snorted, "Xander, this is a Geth node you aren't slicing a public extranet terminal. Their most basic encryption will consist of character strings of 120 to 240 it would take you ..." Tali was interrupted by beeping from the terminal

"About five seconds ...and that's being generous." Xander said with a triumphant smirk.

Tali looked at the assistant tech in shock, "Keelah ... how did you do that?" she asked.

"My omni-tool has a few off market apps, I got them from a Doctor I know, he gave me a few upgrades including to the decryption and hacking protocols."

Tali looked through the data streams sighing contentedly,"This is interesting."

"Anything about Saren or why the Geth are here?" Xander asked.

"Nothing we don't already know; the Geth refer to the objective as Species 37 just like ExoGeni does. No the interesting thing is a notation on file. There is a return message to Saren advising him to avoid the Armstrong cluster. They're warning Saren to avoid contact with the listening posts in that area "

"Who's Listening Posts?"

"Geth ... there are Geth Listening Posts in the Armstrong Cluster. This makes no sense, the Geth here on Feros often refer to the ones in the Armstrong cluster as ... the closest translation I can think of would be... The Blasphemous or the Faithless. The Geth have evolved religious factional thinking? Oh this is not good."

"The Geth have religion," Xander grimaced. "...And here I thought they were intelligent."

"You don't think highly of religious faith?" Tali asked, Quarians had a deep sense of spirituality. One of the few things that remained of their culture despite the many centuries they'd been wandering though space.

"I have no problem with Faith Tali," Xander soothed, "its religion I'm not fond of. I've seen some pretty screwed up things done in the name of religion."

They were interrupted by Shepard's shout, "Would either of you gear-heads know what the under-over is for a standard Stellar-Dynamics Hydraulic Pressure System?"

Xander bellowed back, "Depends! Usually it's fine at 30 pounds per square inch! Anything over 35 and the system resets when it isn't maintained properly! Why?"

Shepard made an adjustment to technical systems in front of her, "You guys might want to back up." she pressed a switch and a metal door dropped down, its mass amplified by the faulty pressure settings allowed the partition to slice into the claw anchoring the Geth Ship to the room. The room , hell the entire building, shook as the dropship's weight shifted dangerously. The squad watched with mixed emotions as the ship dropped down the side of the miles high building to crash in a fiery heap.

"That was seriously cool Boss," Xander was impressed, "How the hell did you know that would work?" he asked.

"Maintenance work order," Shepard gestured behind her, "looks like they never got around to fixing the pressure equalization, good thing too."

"I hope that ship was filled with those Geth bastards." Tali spat.

Xander shook his head, "Don't feel you gotta hold back Tali, tell us how you REALLY feel." he muttered.


	6. Feros: The Thorian

_**AN - Chapter five worked better for me as two separate chapters**  
_

_The Geth were not the biggest problem on Feros, the colonist were possessed. It seems Exo-Geni's science team had discovered a sapient species of plant called the Thorian, well it called itself The Thorian, the thing was alive. by blowing out spores that lesser beings inhaled this giant alien weed could control any organic beings nearby. including the colonists living on the planet._

_We descended into the lower levels of the colony and I found myself confronting a previously unknown alien species, a truly unique lifeform ...and trying to kill_

_...Or as Xander called it in his after-action report ... a slow Tuesday._

* * *

The team walked through the dark underground hallways. Shepard had point, aiming the bright beam of her omni-tool's flashlight into the thick shadows.

Liara trailed behind the SPECTRE, obviously nervous and even more obviously not wanting Shepard to see her nervousness.

"I cannot believe that man Fai-dan ...that he could just shoot himself like that." The Asari scientist whispered.

"He didn't just shot himself." Shepard hissed.

"You saw him Doc," Xander replied, "he was fighting this Thorian's influence the whole time. It was forcing him to do it's will. Killing himself was the only escape."

"I'm not letting that thing do that to anymore of the colonists, The Thorian is going to die." Shepard vowed.

Xander glanced at his omni tool's scanners, "I'm reading a large open structure up ahead." he said.

"That's our target people . keep it tight and check targets. it's close quarters down here and I'd rather not take a bullet fired in a panic."

Xander snorted, "Panic? Boss - panic does not even begin to capture how I feel right this second."

"It will be fine," Tali said confidently, "We just need to find this Thorian and determine...what it...what it ... Oh Keelah ..." she trailed off.

Her shock was shared by the rest of the team before them was a thing unlike any creature any of them had ever seen before. Worse yet, it had secured itself to the under-structure of the colony and Xander could see tendrils branching off and meandering into the distance he had little doubt, there were pieces of this thing all across Feros.

"We are going to need bigger guns." Shepard muttered. amazed at the sight of the alien life form.

"This is a plant?" Liara's disbelieving voice echoed the question on all their minds.

"What the hell was Exo-Geni thinking," Xander snapped,

"If they were thinking at all - it was all about their third quarter profit margin." Shepard growled.

"The structure of this thing stretches beyond this room," Tali reported.

"How much beyond?" Shepard asked.

"kilometers easily, " the Quarian answered, "I'm still reading plant matter at the extreme limit of the scanner range."

"The good news," Xander added, " is the main body of the thing will be here. Why else were the colonists so hot to defend this place."

They approached a formation that resembled a head with large thick tendrils hanging down from an opening that suggested a mouth. suddenly it began to convulse. a thick gooey discharge come out of the mouth. The squad jumped back as an Asari dropped to the floor, at least the figure looked like an asari, dressed in the body hugging hardsuits favored by Asari Commandos, one huge difference was the clone's pale and sickly looking green skin.

"Invaders," the clone shouted at them, "A thousand feelers appraise you as meat fit only to dig or to decompose. you are within and before The Thorian, it commands that you be in awe."

"I can do awe," Xander whispered, "Awe is very easy right now."

"I speak for the old growth as I did for Saren." The Clone declared.

"You gave something to Saren, something I need." Shepard snapped.

"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone. trades were made then cold ones began killing the flesh that was to tend the next cycle flesh fairly given."

"Anybody speak plant?" Shepard growled impatiently.

"Saren made a deal for information," Xander answered, "once he had what he wanted he sent the Geth to destroy the Thorian, of course to do that, they had to wipe out the colonists first."

Years spent watching Giles and Willow poring over obscure prophecies and portends , you picked up the knack of figuring it out when the bad guys made with the mystic mumbo-jumbo.

"No wonder Fai-Dan wanted us to go to Exo-Geni, this thing was hoping we'd kill the Geth before dying ourselves." Shepard snarled, before turning back to the clone. "I don't negotiate with plants give me what I want NOW."

"The Thorian is a piece of this world you can no more kill it then you could cut the sky." a biotic field swelled and shimmered around the clone. "No more will the Thorian listen to those that scurry. your lives are short but have gone on too long."

Shepard whipped up her pistol firing a single shot that shook the clone. but it continued to stare at her with hate.

"Your lives will feed the new growth." The Clone hissed.

Suddenly it was rocked backward and went sailing though the air into the pit underneath. Liara stood looking, a biotic field still swirling around her fist.

"Not bad Doc," Shepard smiled. Liara blushed even as she obviously enjoyed Shepard's praise. Xander watched them, Liara reminded him a lot of Tara, powerful yet still coming to terms with just how powerful she really was.

A low moaning filled the dark corridors , Xander tuned to see a crowd of deformed begins shuffling toward them. their twisted bodies a grotesque mix of plant and human. Xander got the squad's attention,

"Yeah - can she do that about a hundred or so more times." Xander pointed.

The creepers raised clawed hands and began to run at the squad.

"Have I mentioned lately how much I hate zombies." Xander shouted as he fired round after round trying to keep the creepers back. Shepard nailed head shot after head shot. As each shot hit home, the creepers would die but two more seemed to fill any gap in the wall enclosing them.

"They look like the husks I saw on Eden Prime,,,but more organic looking." Shepard muttered as she fired her shotgun, it blast caused her target to explode in a greenish mist.

The squad fell back to an alcove, Shepard and Xander providing cover as Tali and Liara searched for a way out of the basement.

Tali noted the thick bundles attached to the wall "Those nodes," The Quarian engineer pointed, "perhaps if those could be dislodged?"

Shepard unleashed her sniper rifle, Xander recalled the commander's fetish for modding the hyper accurate weapon's payload with high explosive rounds. Shepard snapped off a shot and Xander watched as the wall exploded with great force dislodging the node, a loud cry echoed through the chamber.

"It did NOT like that." Xander shouted firing his pistol on several creepers who were getting too close.

Indeed the Thorian convulsed again and another clone slid out of it's mouth already un-holstering the shotgun at its back. It fired a shot that punched Tali in the stomach. The Quarian fell to the ground with a pain-filled cry as a Creeper loomed over her. It mouth opened and a sickly green foam vomited forth covering the Quarian who panicked.

Xander could see she was trying to protect a rupture in her suit. For a human or Asari a puncture in a hard suit was serious, for a Quarian it was a potential death sentence, toss in whatever sick crap was in the noxious goo covering the Quarian and her fear was more then justified.

Xander dived to cover her with his body feeling several shots impacting with his own suit, he felt fire blossoming along his side, one of the shots had punched through the suit's kinetic barrier.

Shepard, hemmed in trying to keep both herself and Liara alive, was shocked when Xander stood up and pulled his arm back. A hard light blade slid out of his omni-tool. He swept his arm forward cutting the creeper's head off - he spun around in an elegant almost dance-like move, sweeping the blade up and out to cut down two more that were threatening Tali.

The blade retreated back into the omni-tool as Xander looked around the room.

"I got an idea." Xander shouted. as he tapped at his omni-tool again. Suddenly a low rumble was just barely audible. Xander slid his fingers across the control screen and the creepers dropped to the ground screeching.

"What are you doing?" Shepard shouted.

"The foundation is made out of ferro-concrete and since I'm guessing Exo-Geni went with the cheapest building materials they could find, I'm betting they used an unstable metal composite. One neat thing about cheapo composite materials is it only takes a a little high frequency ultrasound to start them vibrating ... and since The Thorian has attached itself to the walls that vibration is echoing though its entire form." Xander sneered a look of dark determination on his face.

The creepers were crying out some exploded in gooey mists as they died. The clone shrieked and cursed at them. One by one the tendrils yanked on the walls jerking the nodes free of the painful vibration the huge creature finally dropped into the pit underneath.

Shepard and Xander looked down into the pit. "You think its dead Boss." Xander asked.

Shepard pulled an incendiary grenade off her belt. she primed it and tossed it down into the pit. Seconds later, a fiery explosion tossed heat and light in their faces.

"If it isn't dead, then it's having a really bad day." Shepard sneered. She tossed Xander another incendiary explosive, "Make sure it's a really really bad day."

"Shepard, we found a survivor." Liara was tending to an Asari who looked a lot like the clones they had been fighting. save that she possessed the more traditional blue skin Shepard associated with "Normal Asari"

"All right, let's hear it. Who are you and how'd you get down here?" Shepard snapped, her gun almost but not quite pointed at the cowering asari.

"My name is Shiala, I served Matriarch Benezia. When she joined with Saren, I did as well. I was sacrificed to secure an alliance."

"...and why did Saren need an alliance with a plant?" Shepard asked.

"To gain access to the Cipher."

"OK lady start talking, What is the Cipher and trust me lady, your answer better be high on the clear and concise and low on the mystic crap."

"if only it was always THAT easy." Xander grumbled.

* * *

_Shiala, like all Asari, possessed the ability to form a neurochemical bond with any species, an ability that allowed them to procreate but also let Asari share thoughts, feelings and even memories on a mental and almost spiritual level._

_Xander called it mind melding and I honestly can't think of a better term._

_Shiala had used this ability to take from The Thorian knowledge of the Protheans that had lived on Feros fifty thousand years ago. This was The Cipher - the distilled essence of an entire species, it's memories, it's culture, it's language. It sounded like crap to me but if Saren had been willing go to this much trouble to try and keep me from getting a hold of it, The Cipher was something I was going to want. Shiala used the asari joining to give me the Cipher but it was Liara with her knowledge of the protheans who really helped me. by joining with me she was able to help me organize and even begin to process the barrage of images the beacon on Eden Prime had given me. The experience of Joining was ... not unpleasant and it helped cement my growing attraction to our young (relatively speaking) Asari scientist._

_From that point onward Xander would often greet her with the phrase "live long and prosper" - apparently a reference to an old earth television program._

_The other reason that fight stood out in my mind was that during it Xander took a shot meant for Tali. She was down for a few days from a minor illness she got as a result of exposure to the Creeper's toxic goo and the damage to her suit. Still it might have been worse if not for Xander's putting himself in harm's way. I could have sworn Xander had also taken a petty serious shot but afterward there was no trace of any wound on his person. which stood out in my mind because I saw his hardsuit and the damaged area on a human could have killed him and should at least have wounded him severely but he seemed ignorant he'd been hurt in any way._

_I've also run checks across the extranet. The only hard light omni-blades are still in the testing phase, they wouldn't be ready for another four or five years and the only people working on a high frequency sound generator for a omni-tool say their version is still in the early stages of design ... so how had Xander gotten a hold of the one he had?_


	7. UNC: Missing Marines

**_AN - Thanks to Reikson for the help and advice_**

* * *

The Mako fell through the skies of Edolus, a mere hundred meters above the ground the tank's jump jets flared bright as the vehicle hit the ground with a soft bounce.

"I gotta say Harris you do one hell of a MAKO drop. This tech I trained with at Fort Charles, I'd swear he did more damage to anyone unlucky enough to be doing a suborbital drop with him then he ever did in combat." Williams commented.

"It's all in the timing Chief," Xander replied, "you go full burn just before you hit ground and the MEF Generator lets you soft-land this sucker."

"Triangulating that Alliance signal," Shepard said as she looked at the on board scanner map.

"Where we going Boss?" Xander asked

"Big open area, should be about two kliks from the drop site." Shepard pointed at the screen.

"Then away we go." Xander opened the throttle and let the Mako leap ahead. The vehicle bounced over rock and hills with Xander giving the occasional rebel yell as the tank cleared a rise, catching air before landing on the soft sand of a big open patch of land.

"That's our target," Shepard pointed at the still smoldering hulk of a M29 Grizzly. Xander slowed the Mako to a stop next to the Mako's squat all-terrain vehicle bastard cousin. As the squad climbed from the Mako, Xander saw bodies laying around They were dressed in the drab colors of the Systems Alliance.

"I recognize this unit patch." Ashley said quietly, "These were Kahoku's men."

"What the hell were they doing way out here?" Xander asked as he ran his hands over the beacon sitting unattended.

"There's the beacon," Shepard wondered."...but what happened to them?"

Xander wandered over to the Grizzly. His fingers trailed over the pitted and scarred hull. Suddenly it came to him, he bent to look closer. The scarring on the Grizzly's armor, it sparked a memory, screams in the dark, men and women running for their lives and the monstrous shapes dragging men to their deaths underground or watching them scream, as powerful acid ate it's way past kinetic barriers and the armor underneath.

Harris bent to look at the bodies, their hardsuits were riddled with holes, the kind of damage Xander remembered all too well. Xander dropped to the ground. his fingers brushed earth at his feet. he felt the pulsing, that oh so familiar pulsing, Xander's blood ran cold.

"We have to leave , we have to leave right now." Xander snapped

"We haven't finished investigating." Shepard replied.

"We don't need to investigate, I know what happened - they landed near the beacon, just like we did. They got out to investigate it, just like we did. ... and just like before, THEY were waiting."

"Who was waiting," Shepard asked him. "What are you talking about Harris?"

Suddenly a mind-numbing roar shook them to the bone. The ground several meters away churned and exploded as a huge worm tore itself free of the earth.

"Thresher Maw!" Xander yelled.

"Get to the Mako!" Shepard shouted. They fled for the safety of the M35. Xander gunned the engine into life, spinning the thing around and heading for a rocky out cropping that formed a kind of perimeter for the plain.

The Thresher Maw retreated underground. So rapid and complete was it's disappearance that no trace seemed left of the grotesque hulk.

It's gone," Ashley sighed

"That's what it likes you to think." Xander growled. He floored it, driving the tank across the plain so fast the vehicle would catch air from even the smallest deviations in the terrain. Xander suddenly felt a sicking vibration swelling under his feet. He cranked the stick over hard, weaving the tank away from his course only a split-second before the Thresher Maw tore its way out of the ground in their path.

So close was the creature to them that the Thresher struck out with its huge talons. The reinforced hull clanged loudly as the single claw struck the tank a glancing blow. The tank bounced as it was thrown through the air, rolling and bouncing across the plain several times before landing on its top, wheels spinning.

Xander could see the creature drop into the ground and reappear close by, its huge bulk reared back as it claws came swinging down toward the helpless vehicle. Xander gunned the jump-jets hard and the Mako slid across the sand until its gyro-stabilizer system kicked in and the vehicle flipped over to land on its wheels.

Xander reversed but everyone was jolted hard when the Mako hit an obstacle - the stationary Grizzly. He gunned the engine, in theory the tank should have been able to easily scale the junked vehicle behind but the facts were cripplingly clear. the Grizzly wasn't going anywhere, the Mako could get no purchase in the soft and shifting sand, and if he didn't do something in seconds they'd be dead.

"All wheel drive my bony ASS." Xander cursed, as he opened the throttle, the Mako jolted forward toward the Thresher Maw. the creature roared in joy as they drew closer and reared back. Its head snapped forward and Xander saw the thick gooey mass of greenish liquid sail through the air toward them but Xander veered away and the tank slid out of the path of the viscous goo the creature spit at them. Harris spun the vehicle around then stopped.

"What are you doing?" Williams snapped

"It can track us and pop up underneath us anywhere we go in the area." He gunned the jump jets to avoid another splashing by the acidic goo the Thresher maw used. "... but It won't go underground as long as we stay here."

"Great so if we're sitting ducks it will be happy." Ashley snapped as she grabbed the gunnery position firing the mounted chaingun right down the Thresher Maw's huge mouth until the weapon would overheat, then she'd switch to firing blasts from the mass accelerator cannon, hardened slugs exploded with great force across the thick hide of the monster.

Shepard however knew and understood what was in Xander's mind "You sure about this Sailor, absolutely sure?" She asked quietly.

Xander answered her by scrambling away from the controls. "Grab those jump jet controls Boss, see that big sack near its mouth, when you see it contract its about toe spit hit the jets and we should be fine. Can I borrow that sniper rifle?"

Shepard nodded and handed him her Volkov. "Williams keep firing, aim for the head." Shepard ordered.

Xander kicked open the entry door hopping out the side.

Williams screamed, "Now where the hell do you think you're going?"

Xander didn't answer, just walked a short distance from the Mako.

Ashley shouted at Shepard who shook her head "It's fine Williams, just think of it as confrontation therapy." The commander said and pointed.

Xander lined up the sniper rifle, through the scope he could look right into the things face, "From Hell's heart I stab at thee." he whispered and squeezed the trigger. The shot exploded in the maw's face and the creature let out a final wail before crashing to the ground.

Ashley stopped her assault but Xander just approached the thing closer while wrenching the slide on the weapon, a blast of steam bathing his face as he flushed the heat sink.

He stared at the creature for a long time. Memories of his old squad ran through his head. That night on Akuze. The long days afterward surviving, waiting for rescue and wondering if this was the universes big joke, that he'd survived vampires, demons and Hell Gods just to rot here on this lonely patch of ground surrounded by the accusing eyes of the dead. "Why did it have to be you," they screamed, "Why not Faith or Buffy, Buffy would have saved us."

He aimed again, "For hate's sake, " Xander whispered, "I spit my last breath at thee. " The explosive shell boomed and the carcass of the maw shuddered but stayed where it was, its huge talons anchoring its dead weight above ground.

Xander wrenched the slide again obviously bent on firing at the carcass again and again. As if by obliteration of the body he could purge the memories it conjured. Suddenly Shepard's hand was there, the gentle weight of her hand riding the sniper rifle away from his face.

"... He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it." She whispered gently as she took the Sniper rifle in her stronger grip. Xander released the weapon. "How long you been carrying that around inside you?" She asked.

"I wasn't even supposed to be there you know," Xander explained, "One of the other guys in the unit, his wife went into labour so I subbed in for him. Traded away my leave so he could watch his wife squeeze out another unit. I figured, what could go wrong, its just their communication systems down, we get down there and it will be fine - what could take out an entire colony so fast no one has a chance to signal or call for help? - Guess I forgot, I'm Xander Harris - Universal Butt Monkey."

"You OK?" Shepard asked

"Yeah, feel good, better then, actually." Xander said quietly. He moved forward pulling his service knife from his belt and cutting into the flesh securing the blotted acid sac to the body of the thing.

"What are you doing, now you want a trophy?" Ashley asked

"It's for Wrex. Bringing down a Thresher Maw was considered a sign of great virility even before the genophage."

"Krogan would willingly try and fight these things?" Ashley didn't know whether that news scared or amazed her.

"Some people are a little easier to impress then you are Chief." Xander mocked gently, "anyway we should tell Kahoku we found his Marine unit."

"An Alliance beacon used as bait, to trap a marine unit in a thresher maw nest " Shepard muttered

"A marine unit scouting the system for clues about a possible Alliance black op." Xander reminded her.

"Come on," Shepard growled, "we should get back to the our ship Joker can get us back to The Citadel and we can get some answers about what's going on."

"Neat, " Xander replied, "Hey maybe creepy stalker guy will be there. Conrad whatshisname. "

Xander had aquired a new and much resented ability to imitate the star struck Conrad Verner, he would often slip into the mans voice, "No one will believe i met the beautiful Commander Shepard unless I have a picture." Xander mocked.

Shepard looked at Xander balefully, "Don't start Harris or I swear to God..."

Xander held up his hands to forestall her explosion, She shook her head and smiled. They headed back toward the Mako.

Shepard laid her hand on Harris shoulder. "You did good, Kahoku's men will rest easier now."

"They won't be the only ones." Xander answered.

"Is that the first time you've seen one since..." Shepard trailed off. her meaning clear.

Xander nodded, "Don't worry about me Commander, I know how Moby Dick ends ... I ain't ending up like Ahab it's just ..."

"I know," Shepard smiled "it's good knowing what kind of man I have watching my back in combat. and obsession can be healthy in low doses."

"Should I get you two a room" Williams muttered.

Shepard flipped Ashley off .

"Now Commander," Xander joked. "that is so not very lady-like."

"...and when exactly did I leave you with the impression that I was a lady." Shepard sneered.

Williams climbed back in the Mako and tried hard not to think about the flare of jealousy that had blossomed when Shepard and Xander were bantering. The Commander was spending way too much time with the Asari for it not to be obvious which team SHE played for, so Ashley figured she needn't be that worried about Shepard and Xander logging bunk-time ... still, just for a second, she'd been feeling almost ...territorial.

Hours later Shepard was prowling the CIC when she saw an environmental alert pinging. she tapped the tech who was at the console. he gulped under her stern look.

"Ma'am, Technical Sargent Harris said the internal systems were malfunctioning and that it might give false readings. He said he'd check any alerts out personally.

"Oh he did, did he?" Shepard growled.

Shepard headed down to the cargo hold and sure enough Xander and Wrex were sitting over a field burner the cargo hold was filled with a rancid stench whose only source could be the thresher meat cooking on the burner.

"Would one of you idiots like to tell me who gave you permission to start a fire on my ship." Shepard snapped.

"Shepard, You had a Thresher Hunt and didn't invite me? I'm hurt, figuratively speaking." Wrex replied, His voice had that thick quality that, along with the open bottle of ryncol, The Krogan liquor of choice , next to him meant he was drunk or pretty damn close to it.

"Don't look at me," Xander explained, "I just gave him the meat, then he said I had to stay while he cooked it up then I had to join him I hate thresher meat and I not a big drinker but I figured it would be rude to just leave and ... I'm going to be on extra duties aren't I?"

"I seem to recall someone putting in for extra manpower so Adams could recalibrate the engine conduits ...i think you can handle that on your own now. And it you disable internal security again I'll shove your ass in an airlock. .. Now open Williams locker I know she's hiding some booze and I am not drinking alone Harris so suck it up."

The three of them toasted the fallen on Edolus , then they drank a toast to Xander's unit on Akuze and then Wrex felt Xander and Shepard needed to hear about his most epic battle, the one that had ended with the death of Wrex's father after the old Krogan had tried to kill him. After that, Xander felt a another round needed drinking because ... if there was one thing he understood, it was the pain of your father letting you down.


	8. UNC: Major Kyle

_**AN - Thanks as always to Reikson who makes this a lot easier and way more fun**_

* * *

UNC: Major Kyle

As the door to her cubbyhole burst open, jack's biotics flared and she slammed her intruder up against the bulkhead. That she barely glanced up from the omni-tool she was tapping away at to do it was a lot of the reason why she was the most powerful biotic in the isolated commune. It was also a reminder to Pasha, the East Indian currently struggling for her next breath that there was a reason you didn't bother Jack in her personal space, or really bother her at all. It was already pretty obvious with her volatile temper and staggering level of biotic power that unless you had gotten tired of living, Jack was best left alone at all times. She'd made it abundantly clear she had no problem killing ANYONE who so much as glanced at her wrong.

"Jack, Jack - please ... it's me Pasha let me go." The girl gasped, "Father Kyle is in danger. There are more Alliance troops. they just arrived."

"Shit, How many of these assholes do I have to kill anyway?" The tattooed woman snarled. Pasha recognized a few of the tattoos Jack sported. The story they told of where she had been, what she had done and who she'd done it to, was a story Pasha was kind of scared of hearing.

"They say it was some soldier Kyle used to know. They call her the Butcher of Torfan, she's told him plain as day that if he doesn't give up, she'll kill every one of us and she sounded serious. I think she'd do it too."

"She could try it." Jack growled.

"Jack you didn't see her eyes, there was something dark in there ... if the stories about Torfan are true, I wouldn't mess with this chick or the crew she's brought with her. If she's really the Butcher - I think she'd kill anyone she had to."

"Pasha living is hard - death is simple ... easy ... fucking on-off switch. "

"Whatever Jack I'm scared for Father."

Jack looked at Pasha and shook her head, Pasha was a follower through and through. That was how she'd ended up on this god forsaken rock in the midst of a biotic cult compound in the first place. Pasha had followed another biotic here, another lost soul lured by Father Kyle's promises of safety and community. Hell that was why Jack was here.

Father liked to think they were all equal and special little snowflakes. Jack knew better, you get a group together and someone always needs to establish dominance, needs to show they have control over everyone else. That wasn't just her talking it was millions of years of human evolution talking.

That was Pasha's ...well boyfriend didn't really capture the disparity between them did it, call it what it was, Pasha's owner, the latest of several - Jack had little doubt. Some people thought their lives were better when someone else made the choices for them. They come off like bullies just like Pasha's little boytoy had. His name was Reno emphasis on the was ... He'd done what a lot of stupid people do. He looked at Jack's tattoos, her beestung lips, her bald head and slight but athletic figure and saw something he could control and intimidate. Reno has set out to fuck with her to prove he was the stronger of the two, there was only one problem with that scenario, he wasn't stronger - he had no idea how very weak he was or how much he looked like one of the men who had hurt her, abused her, and ironically turned her into the bad-ass biotic bitch she was now.

Jack had actually been looking forward to it , even enjoyed it a little when he came for her. It had felt so good to just let go, she'd made a show of it. Reno had a small group of followers, people like Reno always had followers , they couldn't function without an audience. Jack had started with them, she'd left them alive however. jack had wanted them to see what she did to Reno, see his humiliation, his fear and when she was finished toying with him, she made him grovel like a dog before she ended it.

No one fucked with her after that.

It hadn't taken long for Pasha to come around to Jack after that. That was what her kind did, find the strongest and hang on to them hoping for protection. Reno had been that protection but with Reno dead she needed someone new but Jack was no protector. What Jack was however, was someone with enough life experience to know that people like Pasha had their uses ... even if it was just as something to trade when creds weren't available or acceptable.

Jack put the finishing touches on a new haiku. She had no idea why she liked poetry, no idea why she liked reading it or writing it but sometimes reading about pain and loss expressed in lyrical form made it seem less real. She had a few pieces posted on the extranet under a screen name. Jacqueline Naught, had a small group of readers most were posers acting like they knew shit. she dismissed most of them except for one guy ... SunnyD-boi, whoever he was he had a taste for beat poetry. They traded barbed comments back and forth. Whoever he was he wasn't some kiss ass who thoughtlessly heaped false praise on crappy work or a poser who crapped all over people more talented then he was. He even had a few works posted. She was reading one now. another reprint of a dead poet he called William The Bloody, Jack liked the guy's stuff She had to respect anyone with the balls to use effulgent - not an easy word to find a rhyming scheme for.

"Jack, Father needs us." Pasha whined.

"Fine let's go deal with this shit so I can get back to doing something fun." Jack snarled, "Gimme a smoke!" Another nice thing about having a shadow was Pasha could score shit for her. It was sometimes nice getting things without having to steal them herself or kill someone else for them. Pasha never complained when Jack sent her on missions, her kind never did. Considering the kind of shit Reno had her doing, scamming smokes for Jack was a vacation. She pulled out a carefully hidden smoke, handing it to Jack who lit it up. Jack took huge satisfying drags as they walked toward the central meeting area. Pasha walked a little behind Jack , a bit of a swagger in her stride. Jack knew that Pasha hinted to some they'd been intimate, It wasn't true and Jack might have to put a stop to it by publicly slapping her down but the rumors served to intimidate some. Jack liked it when people were a little afraid of her, it made them less inclined to fuck with her.

Father was there alright looking serene and calm, of course he was calm. Jack was there, that meant he wouldn't have to get his hands dirty doing the actual killing. Jack had done the last two idiots as well.

Jack would have dismissed Father Kyle as just another user out for what he could grab but he'd avoided one big misstep, the most important as far as Jack was concerned. As far as Jack knew, Kyle didn't mess with the other girls. She'd watched Pasha and a few others try but Kyle had avoided their advances so far ... so far. Lets face it Kyle was a man and with a man it always came down to sex. Jack was sure he'd slip up one day. It didn't matter to Jack as long as he kept his hands off her, Jack had a special hate inside her for guys who didn't know how to keep their hands to themselves around her ...and a couple of special tricks she'd come up with over the years, skilfull application of a biotic field could do a lot of damge to a man. You did it wrong and they were dead, but if you did it right - they could still walk afterward, they just never wanted to ever again remove their clothes in someone else's presence.

"My children," Father Kyle said in that deep voice of his, "When this Shepard comes do not do anything to provoke her."

"What if she tries and hurts you Father" Pasha asked.

Father Kyle smiled oddly "I assure you Pasha, with Shepard there is no such thing as try. There's a legend of a great warrior back on Earth. It was said that so great was his fighting skill he could kill anyone he wanted. If he set out to kill God then God would die. I think that could be said of Shepard. In combat she is the most frightening warrior I have ever known, entirely without mercy or pity. That is why I tell you again, unless she attacks you first, do nothing to provoke her." Father Kyle looked at Jack then, his meaning clear.

"What the fuck-ever." Jack sneered.

The door to the room opened then and a small squad entered. a Turian and two human. The male looked around the room.

"Isolated location-check, mindless droogs with near religious devotion -check, loudspeaker for preaching to the socially mal-adjusted - check ... this idiot is running the Jonestown playbook step-by-step."

"A cultist leader from Earth's history I take it?" the Turian drawled.

The male nodded "That one did not end well." He caught sight of Jack and waved, "Hunny, could I get my poisoned koolaid in grape flavour please - twist of lime and some ice?"

Jack resolved right then to kill him first when the time came to stop screwing around. Then she saw HER. Jack found she could not look away from those eyes. her aura, Jack was a killer several times over but in that moment, when those eyes ran over her apprising her and then dismissing her, she felt very small. This woman was a Killer with a capital K, she'd killed and killed again and become something entirely different in the process.

"The Butcher Of Torfan," Father Kyle said with a slight smile, "... so they sent you - did they Joan?"

The chick startled at Father's words, "You knew someone would come especially after you killed those other alliance reps." Shepard said. her voice filled with cold menace.

Kyle nodded, the regret in his voice almost sounded sincere, "They spoke against me, against my children, they spoke blasphemy. I had to deal with them." the cult leader replied.

"Did you kill them?" Shepard asked, her gaze burned.

Kyle looked away from Jack as he answered Shepard, "I promise you Shepard they did not suffer, their end was quick and painless."

"I thought as much," Shepard folded her arms and looked with disgust at Father as if he were a small and pitiful thing, "You want to log a Section Eight discharge, you do it on your own time Kyle. I know you aren't crazy no matter what Hackett and the others say. You're no madman and you sure as hell never cared a damn for biotics when I knew you. What you are Kyle, is a coward - pure and simple. You were a coward five years ago on Torfan. You're a coward now; and the only thing that will likely change about you is you'll become an even bigger coward and eventually knock up one of these deluded idiots and she'll push out a few children who will be as cowardly as their father."

The silence in the room was almost tangible. Finally, it was broken by the mouthy male, who said, "Geez, boss, personal issues much? You might want to dial it back a little. I don't think these guys will like you talking that way about their leader."

"Harris if they were going to do anything they'd already be moving. I bet he's told them to stand back because he knows what will happen if anyone in this room raises a biotic field to so much as scratch their nose, I will raze this building and everyone in it down to the dust. How am I doing Major? Did you warn them not to move - not to breath unless I fire first?"

"They aren't to blame for what happened they are pure, innocent - please leave them be Shepard?"

"I don't care about them Kyle, I'm here to being you in. If they stay fine - if they go fine, but if they stand in my way - God help them. and God damn you if you're such a coward that you'd make them die for you."

"I'm sorry- Shepard." Kyle whispered.

"I'm five years past giving a crap about you and your sorry. You have one hour, if you aren't in front of this compound waiting for the Sixth Fleet detachment; then I will come back for you Kyle and I swear by all that is holy I will make you watch ... you will live to see the price others pay for your cowardice."

Shepard turned on her heel and walked out.

"I love it when she does that." The Turian sighed.

"You have a creepy shrine somewhere, don't you?" The male human asked wryly, and the Turian's body language screamed embarrassment.

"She's our leader I admire her." The Turian explained.

"Would you like a picture? You know that nobody will believe that you know the Beautiful Commander Shepard if you don't have a picture," he taunted gently.

The turian looked at him, "OK now's its starting to creep ME out how much like Verner you sound when you do that."

The male paused "Actually it's starting to creep me out a little too." he muttered as they left.

"What the fuck just happened?" Jack snapped.

"Pasha, if you could tell the others ... I'll be giving myself over to the Alliance. This has gone too far. I'll not see the rest of you hurt because of my mistakes."

Jack sneered, "You really bending over and taking it from that bitch, she doesn't scare me."

Kyle looked at her, "Jack I know you aren't stupid so I'll assume your lying to yourself about that. Don't do it, You've killed and you do it well but you aren't in Shepard's league. Maybe one day you will be but that day is not today."

"Fine I'm out of here."

Pasha trailed after her, "If your leaving maybe I could come with you, you know in case you need backup. You going to Omega?"

"That's the idea " Jack smiled, she knew the kind of ship captains who went to Omega liked their poorer female passengers to pay in installments for passage. Pasha would be useful cred for getting them there then she could be dumped as soon as Jack could get another ride.

* * *

Xander dropped a datpad in front of Shepard who was staring into a cup of coffee like it was the future. She was fingering another data pad

"Hackett just sent word, Kyle gave himself up. The Biotics are heading for the hills. you may officially consider yourself covered in glory."

"Yah me, " Shepard drawled, "Have Joker plot exit vectors for as many of them as we can. Might as well let Alliance High Command know a bunch of pissed-off biotics are running around with head full of Kyle's anti-social garbage."

"You were a little harsh down there don't you think."

"Meaning?"

"You practically threatened to kill every man woman and child down there if Kyle didn't give himself up."

"That's why I like bringing my own personal moral compass along on missions."

"Kaiden is the boyscout Boss, I get your whole Ends-Justify-the Means mentality but ... "

Shepard held up her hand to interrupt him, "One of those - pure and innocent - people killed two Alliance personnel who's only crime was not seeing Kyle for what he really is. Not all of us find it easy to let something like that go Xander."

"You were bluffing right, you wouldn't have really killed every one there just to punish Kyle for sticking you with the bag for everything that went down at Torfan."

Shepard looked at Harris, her cold gaze was all the answer Xander would ever need. Xander sometimes wondered if Torfan had created Shepard, or had it just given her a stage so the person she really was inside could finally come out to play. Suddenly Xander's omni-tool bleeped, about an incoming E-mail.

"More mail from your angsty poetess?" Shepard asked with an amused grin.

"Ah, Jacqueline is OK she's even kind of talented. I mean she sounds like a thirteen year old who dresses in black and cuts herself but she's still pretty good." He scanned the email and cursed, "How in hell could she possibly like Spike's poetry."

"Old friend?" Shepard asked,

"Very old and gone now like most of them. I used to hate him but if he showed up now I'd hug him, then I punch him out but the hug would be genuine and from the heart."

Such thoughts just depressed him so he changed the subject by sliding the datapad he'd brought closer to Shepard. "incidentally," Xander reported "Garrus and I did a little due diligence, He pressed some of his contacts at C-Sec and they confirm Kahoku's dropped out of sight. It's like the galaxy swallowed him whole."

"The Galaxy or Cerberus?" Shepard asked

"Either way no one has seen him or heard from him."

Shepard nodded and handed Xander the datapad in already in her hands.

"Run that up to Joker, its the co-ordinates for that research world Cerberus is using. I'm thinking its time to find out just how deep this particular rabbit hole goes."


	9. X57: Bring Down the Sky

_**AN - Thanks to Reikson for the awesome advice and the bata help. revised 09/29 for general crapiness  
**_

* * *

Shepard and Williams waited tense and impatient while Xander and Kaiden cut through the door lock controlling access to X57's main control facility.

"I'm telling you Boss something weird is going on." Xander insisted. for the umpteenth time since they'd hit dirt-side in response to a priority one distress call.

"You mean weirder then Batarian Extremists trying to drop a rock the size of a small planet on a couple of million innocent people?" Shepard replied.

"Look I get it Boss, batarians bad - but something doesn't add up. That woman Kate Bowman she said there were three active fusion torches pushing this rock toward Terra Nova, so who shut down the second one? Who took out the squad of batarians who were manning that torch? We found the other members of the mining team safe and sound. Who took out the batarian squads hunting them down? I'm telling you Boss there is someone else on this rock."

"That's got it" Kaiden muttered as the lock fell away. Kaiden's biotics flared as he channeled a blast of force at the door pushing it open far enough that he and Xander could get a grip and pull the door aside.

"Finally, what was the problem?" Shepard grumbled.

"Someone jammed the door," Alenko explained, "Screwed the mechanism up completely. But it was how it was jammed that's weird. Someone ripped the door out of its housing then put it back and jammed it shut. I had to hit it with a pretty strong biotic kick just to get the door open again."

"Why rip the door apart? why not use the key or just omni-gel that sucker?" Ashley asked.

"Maybe they didn't have the front door key like we did." Xander pointed out. "Still there is something kinky about all of this."

There was something very familiar about the way the batarians had been neutralized. Whoever had done it had not fired a single round of ammo. The Batarians had all been taken down at close range with overwhelming force.

Shepard grimaced, "Fine, we may not be the only ones on this rock fighting the batarians. Check your targets and try NOT to hit our friendly, but neutralizing the batarian threat has to be our top priority."

The quartet marched into the main facility to find batarians strewn all over the room.

"Someone hit this place hard " Kaiden whispered.

"They hit the batarians pretty hard too." Xander agreed, "I'm no doctor but I'm thinking bodies don't work too good when you have as many broken bones as this guy does."

He gestured to a Batarian laying moaning on the floor. Like his fellow terrorists, he'd been the victim of blunt force trauma. Every bone in his arms and legs clearly broken to keep him from escaping.

"You humans are more trouble then your worth." A new voice hissed. A Batarian flanked by several scared looking thugs plus few of the dog-like varren.

Shepard's gun came up shooting even as a kinetic barrier spring to life separating them. "Balak I take it?" the Spectre hissed.

"I don't know how you managed to take out my people, but you're too late. I have the facility wired; your friends are trapped."

Balak waved toward a room. Xander could see several people sealed inside. The beeping from his omni-tool's scanner confirmed his worst fears.

"There's a bomb," he reported, "going off out here, would be bad, If it goes off in there with the hostages ..." Xander trailed off.

Shepard's cold eyes were resolute. "That's not how this works Balak. You don't get to walk away after trying to pull off an asteroid drop."

"This is nothing," Balak shouted, "You humans have done far worse to the batarians, stealing our resources, forcing us to live on scraps, the war was declared long ago, I'm just firing back."

"You do realize its crap like this that makes everybody think Batarians are scum right?" Xander growled

"I thought they were scum long before this." Ashley replied.

"I'm from Mindior I KNOW they're scum." Shepard snarled.

"Ah Mindior," Balak sneered, "you humans always trumpet that battle as if we didn't give your Systems Alliance fair warning of our territorial claims. Of course you ignored us, your people always ignore us; we had no choice, we had to get your attention..."

"Was that what Elysium was," Shepard snorted, "trying to get our attention? Funny, but after you got it; you run like cowards and hid on Torfan."

"You would know about that wouldn't you?" Balak ranted, "The Great Commander Shepard - The Butcher Of Torfan, how many innocent civilians did you personally gun down?"

"There were no innocents on Torfan," Shepard snorted, "Slavers, drug dealers, pirates, they're all criminals and monsters in my books and I can kill monsters."

"Even the women and children?"

"Funny, You didn't seem concerned about the women and children living on Mindior ... on Elysium."

"Funny, you humans don't seem to have a problem with the Asari practicing slavery or don't you think of indentured servitude as slavery?" Balak sneered.

Xander snorted, "I'm no expert on indentured servitude but the fact you get PAID , that you have to agree to it , and the decided lack of painful brain implantation are a couple of big arguments in favour of the Asari method."

"Enough, you couldn't understand ...or maybe it's just you don't want to understand." Balak shouted.

"I understand an Alliance Citizen, Kate Bowman was taken hostage she had better be in one piece Balak." Shepard snapped.

She was executed as an enemy of the Batarian State, as for her coward brother ... If you don't get out of my way, he and everyone else in that room DIE." Balak's fingers dangled over the controls of his omni-tool. the meaning painfully clear.

"Maybe we should think about it Boss." Xander whispered.

"Alliance policy is clear ... so is Citadel policy; we don't negotiate with extremists." Shepard turned to Balak, "Do what you want with the hostages Balak but it WILL be the last thing you EVER do."

Balak smiled and tapped a command into his Omni-tool

Suddenly a scream cut the air as a blond headed blur few at the door to the room with the hostages.

Buffy?" Xander whispered unbelieving.

Buffy Summers plunged her fingers into the metal door like it was made of paper and ripped it off its housing. She shoved the sheet of metal that had been a door into the room slamming the junked door against the bomb and trapping it against the bulkhead wall.

There was a muffled explosion followed by whining from the station's VI "Explosive decompression, explosive decompression, kinetic barriers are in place - please contact facility control."

"Buffy?" Xander repeated.

Buffy ignored him, instead - dropping the door she'd used to muffle the explosion and protect the hostages. She marched across the room, blurring again as she moved too quickly for human eyes to track. She raked her fingers across the kinetic barrier shorting it out.

The varren at Balak's side jumped at the Slayer's throat. She punched her fist down the beast's throat and Xander heard a sickening wet crunch from deep inside the creature. It fell dead on the floor.

The troops with Balak raised weapons to try and shoot her. Xander reacted instantly shorting out their weapons with his omni-tool while Kaiden used his to overload their shields. Shepard and Williams gunned them down in a heartbeat.

Balak ran but his was a pitiable mortal speed against a pissed off Vampire Slayer, Summers snatched him up violently shaking him by the throat.

"You killed Katie ... " she shrieked, "right in front of her brother, you killed Katie."

"Buffy?" Aaron scrambled from the room. At his back the other survivors unsure of how or why they were still breathing but thankful nevertheless.

Buffy ignored him, She slammed Balak against a bulkhead and Xander could hear his ribs snapping. If Batarian's HAD ribs Balak had just a lost a few of his.

"You and me Four-Eyes, are going to have a hell of a time." Buffy hissed.

"No arguments from me." Shepard sneered, her voice husky with her own hatred and bloodlust.

"Buffy, leave him alone." Aaron shook her.

"He killed Katie." Buffy snarled. her rage, her hate was almost palpable.

"I know," Aaron whispered, "she, ... when they came I just wanted us to hide but she ... she was brave, braver them me."

"He killed Katie right in front of you." Buffy repeated shaking Balak again.

"I know but Katie wouldn't want this " Aaron insisted.

"Katie's not around to ask is she?" Buffy shouted.

"Katie believed in justice not revenge," Aaron answered; standing defiant in front of Buffy, "If you care about her, if you love her, you would honor her memory ...don't let them make you something you're not."

"This is what I am - this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Defending people like Katie from monsters like THIS." Buffy answered him. She slammed Balak against the bulkhead again. another bone snapped, maybe another rib this time or was it a shoulder.

"He's not a monster Buffy," Aaron responded quietly, "he's a sad angry man. Don't give in to him, please don't use Katie's death as an excuse for that. Katie deserved better and so do you."

Buffy dropped him on the floor. with a frustrated sob.

"You think you can keep him from running away now." Buffy grumbled at the soldiers as she walked toward Aaron.

"He won't be doing any running when I'm done with him." Shepard's grim face was set as she pulled her gun.

Aaron rushed past Buffy to stand in front of the Spectre.

"He's been captured," Bowman argued, "... arrest him, let the law handle it from here."

"You would actually put yourself in harm's way for this piece of garbage?" Shepard asked.

"Yes I would," Aaron snapped, "the question is, would you really hurt me just so you can kill him?"

Shepard looked at the small man. finally she turned her head, "I'm sorry for your loss Mister Bowman - if you'll excuse me, my people need to take the prisoner into custody."

Aaron kept shaking until Buffy came over and he threw his arms around her and they wept openly into each others shoulders.

Shepard took control of the situation then, handing Balak over to Alliance Authorities.

Ashley was still amazed at what Buffy had done, Kaiden not so much.

"A lot of Untrained Biotics when they start out instinctively channel their abilities to create mass effect fields that allow them to perform feats of strength." he explained.

Xander had to admit, untrained biotic sounded a hell of a lot better then gang member on PCP or the other unlikely justifications he'd heard for the strange things he had seen in his lifetime.

Eventually the time came to depart, Shepard seemed uncomfortable around Aaron and made it clear Normandy would depart sooner rather then later. Aaron Bowman and Buffy joined them at the space dock to saw them off. Buffy was amazed at the sight of the high tech Normandy.

"Listen Buff, I'm sorry about Katie, I wish we'd been able to get to her sooner." Xander whispered when they had a moment alone.

"I should have come sooner." Buffy heaved a sad sigh, "I was listening to colony comm traffic when I heard the alert. It took me a while to steal a shuttle and get up to that damn space rock."

"So you and Aaron huh?" Xander asked

"He's ...normal very , very normal." Buffy sighed. "When he and Katie found out ... about me ... they didn't freak out. They just dealt with it, you know?"

"That sounds familiar." Xander replied.

"So dear Brother-in-Law," Buffy said pointedly, "I haven't seen you since you were laid up at Arcturus Medical Station, I thought you were going to leave the military after that whole space worm thing."

"A very wise woman once used her powers of resolve face on me. Kept quoting Spider-Man at me. Now every time I think of slacking off or running away, I hear her voice."

"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility." Buffy smiled "Dawn believed in you so much. and here you are ..."

"... following around another champion on a mission to stop another apocalypse. Except this one's galactic-scale," Xander sighed. "I sense a theme developing in my life."

"Now you sense it," Buffy snorted "It's only been like what? ...two centuries?"

Xander hugged Buffy then, "I'm sorry I was such a basket case back then. I lost a wife but you lost a sister I should have been..."

Buffy cut him off "She said you'd be a little wacky afterward, begged me not to give up on you. She would have been proud to see you running around the galaxy saving people."

"Sometimes we save people," Xander replied, "Shepard's kind of hardcore if you hadn't noticed. If you hadn't been there, she would have let the hostages die to keep Balak from escaping." He shuddered at the thought.

"I was on Elysium during The Blitz. I know what we're up against out here." Buffy whispered.

"The Angel of Elysium?" Xander asked disbelieving. "That was you?"

Buffy nodded, "You know how it goes, wrong place right time. The tricky part was keeping anyone from seeing my face. Last thing I need was anyone remembering me."

"Instead, they have a memorial to the unknown hero who saved the colony." Xander muttered.

"Oh really, I should get out there and see it." Buffy replied.

"It's a popular spot for couples to get married " Xander said, the implication heavy in his voice.

"Leave it alone," Buffy punched him in the arm, "we're in a good place right now. Why get a piece of paper?"

Xander snorted, "He's working himself up to it but you aren't sure you want to."

"Xander its been Two Hundred Years - I barely have any gray hairs. It tore you apart watching Dawn ..." Buffy paused, "I just don't know if I could go through that..."

"Then you take joy in every day you do have. You thank God for it and hold on to them." Xander insisted his own resolve face set.

"Wow, way to hallmark card the moment Xander," Buffy gently mocked him, "who told you that?"

"You did, the day before I proposed to Dawn. We ended up having a ton of great years together. I think Sunnydale High's Class Protector deserves no less."

Buffy was touched, "I think I still have that parasol around somewheres."


	10. Citadel: I Remember Me

_**Thanks to Reikson for helping make this wonderful**_

* * *

Xander knocked gently on Shepard's office door. He barely heard her soft whisper, "Enter."

She sat in the room's only comfortable chair; looking out the window at the cold black of space just beyond the re-enforced plasti-steel.

"We passed a comm buoy when we transited through that last system." Xander reported, "Lieutenant Girard sent an update on that girl Talitha. She seems to be doing okay ... Keeps asking if her angel will come again?"

"Eight years old Xander," Shepard's whisper was harsh, "she was eight when they took her, enslaved her , turned her into ... I hate them, I hate every damn one of them. "

She looked into Xander's eyes now. "I have no idea how Aaron Bowman and your friend Buffy can be so forgiving. How do you just ...let that much rage and hate go?"

Xander looked lost for a while. Shepard stared at him as his face took on an expression of world-weary sadness that she had never seen on him before. Finally, he said, "Remember Edolus? You asked me, after the fact, how it was that I didn't wet myself?"

Shepard nodded, "Not that I'm complaining about it but, an uncharted world, dead marines killed by a Thresher Maw? If anyone would have reason to freak out it would be you? And don't give me that guff about needing to look good for Williams' benefit."

Xander sat the small desk. "The truth is - I learned a long time ago that you have to control your emotions, especially the fears or they control you. If I lose it while we're on a mission. If I give in to what scares me or pisses me off, you or whoever else is depending on me, might get killed. My point is part of me is scared by Thresher Maws, by the weird creatures we run into out here, by Liara's ... occasionally piss poor aim during fire fights, but that part lives in service of the part of me that needs to get things done."

"Every time I see a batarian," Shepard snarled, "I remember Mindoir. I remember the people I lost on Torfan. Guys I served with, guys I respected. Guys who might still be alive right now if we wasted less time trying to show the galaxy including those four-eyed bastards how noble and self-sacrificing we can be."

"You hate Batarians, you really, REALLY hate them. I get that, I really do," Xander responded, "but It's like you said to Girard, hating the batarians doesn't help Talitha, listening to her, talking her out of hurting herself or someone else ... that's how you saved her life on that docking bay."

She looked up at him, her eyes not quite betraying her emotions. "Thanks, Harris. What's our status?"

"We just entered Argos Rho, there's a supply depot but it's not on any of the official maps and its not transmitting its IFF, in fact the thing seems to be dead in space ... and it isn't answering hails."

"Standard protocols state I'm obligated to investigate and render assistance if necessary."

"Aren't we the least bit curious how an ancient - and supposedly extinct alien species - managed to wind up being shipped to the ass-end of space so they could completely devastate two listening posts and the marines guarding them?"

"Oh, we're very curious, Harris. We're very, very curious," Shepard replied.

"Well if there is one thing we are doing out here; it's satisfying our curiosity." Xander drawled. He turned to leave when her next words stopped him cold.

"Incidentally, Fredricks was using his extranet access to post pictures of your girlfriend ...Buffy?"

Xander turned back slowly, "Buffy isn't my Girlfriend, she's my sister-in-law."

"You're married?"

"Not anymore, now I'm a widower. Dawn passed on ...a long time ago,"

"Was she a UDB as well?"

Xander was confused, "UDB?"

Shepard sighed, "Biotic ... undocumented, you know, like her sister."

"Oh that" Xander groaned.

"Oh that he says," Shepard sneered, "Xander I know the Alliance hasn't always handled biotics well, hell it shocks me Kaiden isn't more angry about what happened - but undocumenteds are dangerous to themselves and other people."

Xander smiled, "Trust me Buffy can take care of herself. I pity the poor fool who goes to Terra Nova looking to make trouble by trying to drag Buffy away some some kind of brain-camp - she is very , very experienced at dealing with troublemakers."

Shepard looked at Xander, "Assuming she really is the Angel of Elysium I believe you."

Xander stopped smiling, a chill running down his spine at her words.

"You heard us talking about that?" Xander replied, a thousand fear-filled scenarios ran though his mind about where this conversation could lead.

"Fredricks was posting to a conspiracy site one of their topics of interest is the identity of the person or persons unknown who saved Elysium during The Blitz. Jenkins used to talk about it all the time remember?"

Xander did indeed recall the rookie gunnery chief whose death on Eden Prime had shocked and saddened the Normandy's crew.

Crossing his arms, Xander kept his tone calm and flat, "Hypothetically... if Buffy was this Angel... and that is not an admission by the way, But if she were, she'd be responsible for saving hundreds of lives. She's probably living a quiet life away from prying eyes. The last thing she'd want is to end up being poked and prodded like some lab rat; especially when all she did, was what any sane person would do in that kind of situation. Do the best you can to help everyone who might be in danger."

"I guess I can respect that," Shepard mused aloud.

"Did Fredricks post those pictures?" Xander asked.

Shepard snickered, "Of course not ... Have you never heard the tale? No one has ever seen the Angel. No one remembers the face, all photographs seem to have vanished and any new ones do as well. It's like the extranet just swallows any and all tangible references to the Angel of Elysium whole ...it part of the mystery. Now c'mon, let's go see what Cerberus was up to out here."


	11. UNC: Cerberus

Twelve light years away, a small vessel skipped through the eternal void. At the controls was Cerberus Operative Miranda Lawson and she was not happy.

Her enhanced mind ... thank you Father for forcing that on me along with all the other myriad upgrades she had to her body ... could calculate down to the half-credit the cost in time, effort, and resources that had gone up in flames following The Normandy crews sudden and violent assault on the research facilities in the Voyager Cluster.

"Thank You Commander Shepard." She hissed. and cursed again.

One would think with Saren running around attacking human colonies, the Citadel's newest Spectre would have more important things to be doing then kicking in doors on isolated research worlds.

A bleeping sounded through the pressurized cabin signaling the real time call she was trying to setup was ready to go. She flicked a switch and the static ridden screen resolved itself into the weathered face of the Illusive Man - the head of the vast organization called Cerberus - and her boss.

A man of few words he was straight to the point, "Miranda, what news do you have for me?" As always he was smoking. A brand made with tobacco grown only on the Earth. The Illusive Man took his commitment to humanity and the Earth seriously.

"Our outposts in the Voyager Cluster have been destroyed and assuming the reports of Normandy being in Styx Theta Cluster are accurate then its only a matter of time before they find the Sigma 66 depot."

"Unfortunate, still we did get valuable research data. We now know the Rachni are useless unless we can secure and control the Master Control Unit."

"...and that's on Novaria," Lawson replied. "... assuming it isn't in Saren's hands already."

"Ah Saren, the gift that just keeps on giving. His activities make Cerberus' claims seem much more legitimate. The Systems Alliance can hardly pretend the alien agenda is a benign one when Saren attacks us - seemingly with the approval of the Citadel Council." Was that bitter cynicism, in the Illusive Man's voice? Miranda wondered.

"We are going to have to do something about Shepard soon. This can't go on." Miranda insisted.

"With Sigma 66 gone, I think Shepard will find the trail goes cold."

"How can you be so sure?" Miranda asked, She was both committed and loyal but she was not blind and definitely not stupid.

"Because I saw to it that all the personnel I suspected might be disloyal were transferred to the the Supply Depot or the Voyager Cluster, I'm sure it will not come as any surprise to you Miss Lawson that the locations of both found their way into the hands of the Shadow Broker; his mole, whoever it was, will be dead now."

"You wanted Shepard to do the house cleaning for you." Lawson mused, "tactically sound - if a tad ruthless."

"Miranda if we want to remain an Illusive Empire then we have to make sure our secrets stay secret."

"I'd like to repeat my objection to your use of Operative Kai Leng to deal with the Admiral, I could have approached him. This might even have been handled discreetly, instead Kahoku's death just served to spur Shepard on."

"You were right, words I am sure you never tire of hearing." The Illusive Man replied with a chuckle in his voice.

"Then you will let me clean up this mess?"

"Shepard's attack has provided an unexpected side benefit. Corporal Toombs escaped containment."

"Do you want me to retrieve ... Mister Toombs?"

"Not just yet," The Illusive Man answered, "Mister Toombs escaped with some project data, names, locations of a few assets, If a few questionable elements are winnowed out of the organization; then his escape might even prove useful in the long run. What I would like Miranda, is if you could keep an eye on the situation and should the opportunity present itself see that Commander Shepard is allowed to find out about the determined Mister Toombs."

"If you are trying to arrange a scenario to deal with Commander Shepard I can find you assets more reliable then a traumatized soldier."

"Miranda, it's not always about Shepard, in this case it's about her crew specifically one Alexander Harris."

"The soldier who survived the Akuze Incident? Why?"

The Illusive Man paused then smiled, "...Because Mister Harris likes keeping secrets. He needs to learn what happens when you keep secrets ... and I intend to be his teacher."

The Illusive Man broke the connection and Miranda Lawson was left to wonder, what was so special about Harris that warranted the Illusive Man's personal attention? Fortunately Miranda had the most important tool for satisfying her curiosity, a great deal of high level access.

Miranda brought the Ship VI online syncing it to the extranet. "VI, run a secured search across all the usual sources - including Cerberus databases. Give me a full workup on Alexander Harris. Everything he's done, everywhere he's gone, every person he's ever spoken with."

The Vi buzzed, "Alert, alert viral infection detected - any attempt to access this data will result in viral infection do you wish to continue?"

Miranda was intrigued now. "Source of viral infection?"

"Any attempt to access this data will result in viral infection do you wish to continue?"

"Nature of virus?"

"Virus sets up trace programs within infected units allowing third party access as well as deletion of any files related to database query."

"So asking about Harris opens my machine to external access, by whom?"

"Any attempt to access this data will result in viral infection do you wish to continue?"

"How is it you can tell me about this attack?"

"You requested a secured search?"

So if I had just done a normal search for Alexander Harris, my system would be infected right now?"

"Correct."

"Vi is there any other individuals with this specific kind of protection?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything you can tell me about these people anything that connects them ... a word in the database."

"One phrase can be found in all database search strings ... torchwood."

"What is a Torchwood?"

"Torchwood - old earth broadcast vid entertainment. circa early twenty-first century

"What does an old earth tv show have to do with Alexander Harris?" Miranda asked.

"Any attempt to access this data will result in viral infection do you wish to continue?"

If not for Miranda's obsession with security, her system would be compromised but she had to know who it was that was so determined to protect Alexander Harris. Then she had a thought and a wonderfully evil idea.

She opened another protected line and waited, soon enough a haggard looking older man picked up the line.

"Miri," the man said with a yawn, "is that you? it's three in the morning here."

"Sorry to bother you so late Niket but I need you to do me a favour."

"What is it?"

"Run a background check on someone for me - Alexander Harris. Don't do it now under no circumstances use any system you have regular contact with or can be traced to ... unless you can mange to use Father's computer."

Niket snorted, "You think He lets me anywhere near his system Miri."

"Just do what you can and store what you find on a closed system with no extranet access. I'll contact you in a few days."

"Miranda ... What's this about?" Niket asked."how are you. are you in any kind of trouble?"

"I'm, fine Niket," she wasn't very good at this type of thing, the personable stuff that other people took for granted."...I'm just doing a favour for a friend. By the way could you do me one more favour track down all known episodes of an old TV show its called Torchwood "

That one will be easier, one of the guys in the office is mad for those old TV programs and their ideas of what aliens are like."

"Did any of the programs have anything to do with hacking or viruses?"

"Torchwood was a secret organization. On the show, they maintained that secret by creating a virus that would edit any mention of the characters or the organization itself from the world wide web ... of course to do that sort of thing today you'd need a pretty sophisticated AI

"As I said I'll contact you in a few days." Miranda said before cutting the line. She sat back to gaze into space

"Who are you Alexander Harris, "Miranda murmured to herself, "who are you and more importantly Who is protecting you and why?"


	12. Noveria 1

_**AN Split Noveria up for easy reading ... and editing enjoy - huge thanks to Reikson whose advice and support continue to make this better and better**  
_

Noveria

In hindsight, Xander would admit that there was a buttload of foreshadowing that this trip wasn't going to end well. After all, there was trouble less then five minutes after after they'd left the Normandy.

First, there was that real-life Mexican Standoff in the Port Hanshan Docking Bay. Elanus Risk Control Services Officer Maeko Matsuo either did not know or did not care that the Citadel Council had seen fit to bestow its badge of authority on a grunt marine. After all, her second-in-command, Kaira Stirling, had called Shepard's claim of Council Spectre status a 'load of horse crap'.

Port Hanshan had a strict no-weapons policy and Matsuo wasn't about to compromise her tight security for anyone's sake, let alone some random stranger making ridiculous claims, going so far as to demand that the squad surrender their weapons. When Shepard refused, everyone's guns had come up. For several tense moments, Xander thought that he'd been transported into a Sergio Leone cult-classic aching to mutate into a Quentin Tarantino violence-fest. It was only through the quick words and quicker wit of Gianna Parasini, secretary to Port Hanshan's Administrator, that had defused the situation before things got nasty.

Then, there was Rannadril Ghan Swa Fulsoom Karaten Narr Eadi Bel Anoleis; Administrator Anoleis, for short. A Salarian whose passion for corruption knew few equals, he'd kicked off his meeting with Shepard by letting them know that Saren, and Benezia by extension, carried a awful lot of weight on Noveria by virtue of the rogue Spectre investing heavily in Binary-Helix's research.

So, no; they would not be getting any help or cooperation from the Administrator, and could they please get the hell out of his office because he had things far more important to do then entertain a tax-dodging colonial and her team of brainless stormtroopers.

Xander was impressed by Shepard's self-control. She waited all of ten minutes ( the time it took to get to the hotel bar and order a stiff, overpriced drink ) before embroiling the squad in a complex plot to bring down the Administrator. She'd even managed to screw over the whole of Binary Helix in an epic act of subterfuge that was awe-inspiring in both its scope and its simplicity.

Parasini had proved helpful here as well; arresting Anoleis after it was revealed she was actually an Agent with Noveria Internal Affairs who'd been spying on Anoleis for months in the hopes of nailing him for his rampant corruption.

Shepard had even managed to deal with several mercenary elements within the ERCS security staff, including Kaira Stirling. Stirling had already put herself on Shepard's radar over the docking bay incident, but upon learning that she was also Anoleis' paid thug... well, Shepard wasn't a big fan of mercenaries at the best of times, so having Stirling's idiot brigade pull weapons on her? Well, to Shepard's point of view, anyone stupid enough to pull a gun on her just proved that they were too stupid to live; so killing them was just doing God's Good Work.

But it was the bookish Doctor Liara T'soni who'd done the heavy lifting on this one; quite literally. Watching her tear apart Stirling's squad, followed by Stirling herself shortly thereafter, was a sight that Xander would carry to his grave. Well, assuming that he ever reached one.

So by the time the squad was ready to leave Port Hanshan after a Geth ambush and a showdown with a pissed-off Krogan bounty hunter, Matsuo's polite farewell hid a profound and obvious sense of relief at seeing them gone.

During the Mako ride into the Skadi Mountains towards BH's remote research facility of Peak 15, Xander had commented that Shepard had a bit of a vindictive streak.

Shepard snorted. "I didn't hear you complain when that Internal Affairs Agent laid that kiss on you in the hotel bar."

An unintended side-effect of Parasini's need to maintain her cover was that Xander had been drafted to provide her an excuse for meeting with the Commander. to avoid suspicious eyes at one point she had kissed him, and this was no weak-ass peck on the cheek; mouths had opened and tongues had wrestled for dominance. While Xander had no problems in general with being kissed by beautiful women, the smirk on Shepard's face told him that she was never going to let him live it down.

"That kiss meant nothing, it was just window dressing to help establish her undercover identity," was Xander's unconvincing reply.

Shepard nodded sagely. "It meant nothing, huh? Okay. When we get back, let's ask Gunnery Chief Williams if SHE thinks it was nothing." She didn't bother hiding her smirk.

"If you do, can I get a two- or three-hundred meter head start?" Xander pleaded.

"What good would that do you? She could still nail you between the eyes at that distance. I know I could."

"You're a real source of comfort in moments of stress, Boss." Xander groaned. "I just thought you should know that."

"While we're on the subject... Back in the docking bay, you said something... it sounded familiar..." She noticed that Xander's left eye twitched very slightly. "It was a quote from an old Earth actor, Charlton Heston."

"Obviously a human who understands the need to always negotiate from a position of strength." Wrex laughed.

"It was, perhaps, a little more confrontational than we needed to be. At the time, anyway." Liara mused quietly.

"...says the woman who literally painted the walls with an entire merc squad." Xander riposted dryly.

Despite her pride, Liara had the grace to blush just a little, while Shepard leaned closer to her.

"Don't listen to him, Liara. You were amazing back there." The Spectre whispered in the Asari's ear.

At that moment, the Asari archaeologist felt as if that ear had suddenly become the point of contact for every nerve ending in her entire body. To have this woman's attention, Liara was quite sure that she would've happily taken on every mercenary in Council space and beyond. She tried to still the wild beating of her heart while Wrex was still reveling in Xander's discomfort with his... over-excitement during the Port Hanshan confrontation.

"...You can get our guns when you take them from our cold, dead hands," Wrex chuckled. "That is officially my favorite Earth saying."

"I was caught up in the moment," Xander's tone was defensive. "God as my witness, I honestly thought she was going to back down, Boss. You're practically a media celebrity, for God's sake."

"This is why I like hanging around you, Shepard," Wrex mused. "There's no shortage of idiots who need to be killed and who're willing to give you an excuse to do it."

They soon arrived at Peak 15's Central Station, only to find the place overrun with Geth and Rachni. Xander pulled off a bit of technical magic and got the place running again, at least enough so that they could use the tramway to follow Benezia to the Hot Labs at Rift Station. The source of the Rachni infestation, Rift Station was probably where they could finally find a clue about what Saren wanted with an army of relentless killer insects.


	13. Noveria 2

**Thanks to Reikson who did an inspired job on an important scene herein - enjoy**

* * *

"Welcome to Rift Station, your one-stop shop for illegal research, immoral experiments and, if we're lucky, one dangerous and genocidal Asari matriarch. Everybody- OOF!" Shepard jabbed a elbow into Xander's belly, effectively ending his jokes. She then shot a meaningful glance at Liara, whose frustration had grown exponentially ever since they'd learned Benezia was close at hand.

"Hey, Doc, I'm sorry," Xander soothed. "I'm sure your mom's fine. She might even have a reasonable explanation for everything she's been up to."

"A reasonable explanation for helping Saren murder and destroy?" Liara snapped, annoyance evident in her voice. "An explanation for allowing his Geth to try and kidnap or kill me? Giving her loyal followers like Shiala to an alien plant, not to mention whatever's going on with these Rachni? That will have to be some explanation, Xander. I'm looking forward to hearing it, almost as much as you appear to be." Liara's response underlined the bitter anger in her voice.

She walked ahead, leaving the others behind. "Ohh-kay, she's in a bad mood," Xander said dryly.

"Ya think?" Shepard hissed and raced ahead to stop the archaeologist from wandering into some danger or other.

"I think it's an improvement," Wrex rumbled. "At least now we know she's taking that Asari bitch seriously."

"I think she might be a little conflicted about having to fight her mom, Wrex." Xander pointed out.

"I was conflicted about dealing with my father until he tried to kill me," the Krogan reminded Xander. "I didn't feel so conflicted after that."

Xander shuddered. He'd always wondered. If the destruction of Sunnydale hadn't ended any reason for him to deal his parents, might he have had a final confrontation with Tony Harris much like the one Wrex had been forced to survive?

The squad found the only working elevator in the place and traveled up several floors. As near as Xander could tell, they were still far from the heart of the vast glacier that housed the Peak 15 facility.

The doors opened and the squad found itself facing a wall of guns pointed at them. It was a comment on how hectic Xander's life had become that he no longer panicked about such things.

"Stand down!" an older balding man in armor shouted as he stepped forward. "Captain Ventralis, head of security."

"Shepard, Joan; Special Tactics and Reconnaissance," Shepard replied. "...and, no, I'm not giving you my gun."

Ventralis laughed. "Someone's met Captain Matsuo. She's kind of a hard-ass, but she does good work."

"She'll have to do it short-handed," Shepard snapped. "Her staff's a lot smaller now."

"Ouch," Ventralis laughed. "Hope that bitch who works for Matsuo was one of the causalities. Hell of a biotic, but cold as ice."

"You mean Stirling? Yeah, she's a lot colder now," Xander snickered. "Good pro-tip; when betting on a fight between biotics, you always put your money on the blue girl."

"I'm sure that, with her skill, she'd have been quite intimidating... when I was a child." Liara gave a cold smile.

"So, Ventralis... can we talk straight?" Shepard asked. "What the hell is going on around here?"

"A bunch of eggheads were screwing around in Lab Pod Gamma. Next thing I know, I got creepy-crawlies all over. My staff was a lot bigger back then."

"I'm looking for an Asari matriarch. You seen her?"

Ventralis nodded. "Yeah, she showed up after the lockdown began. I noticed that she was packing lots of heat and a few of those commandos. Looked like they were heading into hell. I haven't heard a peep since then."

Shepard turned to Liara. "What do you think, Doc?"

"My mother is almost a thousand years old, Shepard," Liara answered. "You don't reach the Matriarch stage without learning how to survive things that would kill most other species."

Ventralis handed Shepard an security access card. "She's in Pod Gamma. Once she's secured, you should activate the the neutron purge system."

Xander perked up at his words. "Wait, you have a neutron purge system in place and you're still sitting around fighting bugs?"

Ventralis snickered. "You've never worked corporate, I see. When the suits drop a few billion creds into a project, the last person you want to be is the guy who fries said project, even if it's your ass if you don't."

Xander gaped at the man. "...who runs this company, Lex Luthor?"

Shepard shook her head. "I've never heard of a Purge System like that, what's it do?" she asked.

"The main reactor's programmed to release a massive radiation burst," Ventralis explained.

Xander nodded, "...All the fun and games of a nuke without all of the inconvenient property damage afterwards. You don't even have to worry about burial; High levels of neutron radiation and organic tissue do not a fun mix make."

Shepard shook her head. "What the hell? Are you people bored? Is that the problem?"

Ventralis just shrugged. "I've seen them working on some scary crap in those labs, stuff that makes me really, really nervous," the Captain muttered. "Why do think we built this place into a glacier? You drop the heat on anything far enough and it will freeze."

Xander snorted, So what? You were hoping anything that can survive high levels of radiation poisoning will keel over cause it's too cold?

Ventralis grimaced, "I keep my head down, my mouth shut and bank my credits." The Captain retorted "BH has always been a little weird ... and that was before we went into business with that Council Spectre. You know what they're like; no offense."

Shepard waved him off. "I'm not like Saren."

"Thank God for that. I've heard that if you piss off a Spectre, they don't just kill you; they kill your friends, your family, and your house pets."

"Don't worry about Saren," Shepard growled. "His life expectancy is getting shorter by the day." She snapped, before stalking away.

"No offense," Ventralis muttered. "...but your boss is kind of scary."

"You wouldn't be the first to say that." Xander sighed. He recalled both Gianna's and Maeko's reactions to Shepard's occasionally-impulsive behavior. "You wouldn't even be the first person to say that TODAY."

The squad descended into Lab Pod Gamma, where they found no Benezia waiting. Instead, they were besieged by Rachni. Wrex's ancestors had hunted them to extinction, and enough war stories survived from that time so that the ancient Battlemaster was invaluable help in dealing with the incredibly aggressive creatures. There was no way that they'd be able to escape the lab without dealing with the aggressive bugs.

Shepard activated the Neutron Purge using the code that Ventralis had provided.

At which point, the lift system shut itself down.

"Well, that's a surprise," Xander said dryly. "We're trapped in a secure hot-lab, surrounded by Rachni, and our only way out isn't working..."

"Ventralis!" Shepard barked into her radio. "What the Hell's going on? The elevator's locked down and we can't get out of the hot lab!"

"Yeah, sorry about this, Shepard." Ventralis' voice said over their radios. "Saren's offering a lot of money for your head; as in retire-to-Thessia-and-stare-at-sexy-blue-ass-for-the-rest-of-my-life kind of money."

"You think Saren or Benezia will let you survive long enough to spend that kind of money? Don't be an idiot!"

"I'm not a fool, Shepard. As soon as I have my money, I'll deal with Benezia and her Commandos. My guys now control all of the access points in and out of that lab. Now I want you to relax, Shepard. Neutron radiation is a pretty quick and painless way to go."

"You'll be seeing me again, Ventralis. Count on it," Shepard snarled.

"Unless you can find a way to rewire the lift system in under a minute, I don't think so." Ventralis laughed before he cut the connection.

Xander ripped the panel off the wall and searched the viper's nest of circuitry, looking for their salvation. "Boss, the system's fried. I could fix it if we had ten or fifteen minutes..."

"...which we don't have." Shepard snapped.

"Then we need a quick and dirty bypass." Xander replied.

"We're going die down here trapped with these beasts?" Liara whined.

"On the upside, " Xander responded, "seeing as we're pretty close to the main reactor, there won't be that much left of any of us."

"Strangely enough Xander I do not find THAT comforting." Liara shot back at him.

"There must be something!" Shepard insisted. "C'mon, you're the miracle worker; the go-to-guy. There has to be some trick, some work-around! Think!"

Xander looked at the internal guts of the system. "Well... there's a way, but you won't like it."

"Do it." Shepard snapped.

"You don't even know what it is!" he squawked in protest.

"It's your idea, which means it'll be dangerous and stupid. But if you do it, we just might get out of this."

"Good point. All right; Wrex, Doc, into the elevator. When this things starts moving, you do not want to be left behind." Xander pointed at the elevator controls. "Boss, that power panel is about to surge big time. When it does, hold that button down no matter what else happens."

"What are you going to do?" Liara asked, shooting a few Rachni who'd gotten too close to the elevator.

"Like the boss-lady said... something dangerous and stupid," he breathed in and out several times, psyching himself up. "This is gonna hurt... see y'all in a few minutes."

Xander reached into the wall panel and the lights in the elevator flickered on, just as he started screaming. He spasmed in place, his whole body rocked by convulsions, and Shepard thought that she could see tiny arcs of electricity dancing between his teeth.

Liara screamed and Wrex reached out to drag him away, but Xander cried out, "NO! ONLY WAY... PRESS IT, PRESS THE BUTTON!" he screamed as thousands of watts continued to flow through his body.

Shepard hammered on the switch and the elevator doors snapped shut and the car began to rise. But Xander would not release the power lead. His death grip on the metal protrusion made it rattle violently in sympathy to the convulsions he was experiencing as raw power arced over his entire body. The elevator ride only took a few minutes, but his agonized screaming would echo in her memories for years to come.

The elevator doors opened and Xander's body rocketed backwards, out of the elevator, landing in a heap on the floor.

Thin wisps of smoke wreathed his body while the faint odor of burning flesh left a sour stench in the air.

Shepard dropped to her knees and instantly tried CPR.

But Xander's heart had stopped.

He was dead.

It seemed almost unreal.

The best male human friend that she'd made in years, and he'd gone; committing suicide to save them, he'd died for her , died for the mission he hadn't even flinched when he'd done it either.

What was she supposed to do?

What was she supposed to think?

How could she tell his blonde friend... Buffy, was it? that her brother-in-law was dead?

Liara's eyes shimmered. "Find peace in the embrace of the goddess," she whispered. She remembered that Xander had been the first of Shepard's crew to accept her. She'd come to respect his bravery and cleverness despite his penchant for annoying jokes and obsession with pop-culture minutiae.

Wrex gave a silent salute to the boy. He'd lived as a human, but died like a krogan; unflinching and doing credit to Shepard, his Battlemaster.

The old Krogan watched Shepard as a hundred emotions flowed through her. Watching a subordinate sacrifice his or her own self for the sake of their Battlemaster was never easy, not even for a Krogan with an ounce of common sense.

Finally, she stood up.

There was still a mission, after all.

Xander was a soldier under her command and entirely expendable if it accomplished the goal.

But somehow, she couldn't make herself walk away.

She couldn't make herself be cold and distant, even now.

Even as his face no longer had that pinched look of death and had relaxed.

Strange. He looked like he was sleeping. Almost as if he might just wake up any second.

Suddenly his body arched upwards and his eyes shot open. Liara shrieked girlishly in fright, while a wide-eyed Shepard pulled out her pistol and pointed it at him. Wrex had already pulled out his shotgun, pointed it at the coughing boy. Xander's mouth was wide open; a loud, desperate gasp ripping out of his body. He gulped, taking in much-needed air in mighty heaves, as his eyes looking around in fear and terror.

Seeing nothing immediately problematic, he slumped back onto the floor. Still on his back, he groaned. "God, I forgot how much I hate dying by electrocution..."

Naturally, that's when he noticed Shepard and the others staring and pointing weapons at him. He blinked. So did they.

Finally, he asked them, "Weren't you supposed to be gone by now?"

"Weren't you supposed to be dead?" Shepard riposted.

Wrex shrugged. "Redundant nervous system. Well, there's a shock. I thought you humans were too brittle for that."

"Humans don't have a redundant nervous system. Usually..." Shepard replied, heavy meaning in her voice when she said that last word.

"I don't got a redundant anything, boss." Xander said calmly.

"Well then, why are you still alive? Some insulation in your hard suit, some kind of hidden biotic ability, a mutation?"

"Nope, nope, and no. I'm pretty much as mommy Harris made me. Except for one minor thing; I'm a fixed point in time and space, an unalterable fact of Creation."

"In layman's terms, Sargent..." Shepard snapped.

"He's an immortal... an actual living immortal." Liara explained in a shocked voice. "I've heard rumors but I never dreamed ..."

Xander grimaced, "Personally I hate that term," he replied, "it implies I'm NEVER EVER going to die."

Wrex chuckled, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Imagine eating your favorite meal. now picture eating it for every meal every day - morning, noon and night and even for snacks; and knowing that you aren't ever going to eat anything else for a long, long time...still sound like fun?"

"That's what it's like for you?" Liara asked.

Xander shook his head, "It's not all bad ... I used the extra time to pick up a metric ton of education over the years; Dawn's idea."

"And how did this... happen?" Shepard asked.

"THAT is a long story which, if I explain in detail, will distract you from what you really want to be doing right this second."

"And that is...?" Shepard asked.

"Ventralis thinks that we're dead in that hot lab. Which means that he'll be really surprised when you put a bullet in his head... assuming you meant it when you said he'd be seeing you again."

Shepard nodded. She was good at compartmentalizing and processing, after all. "Fine, we deal with you later. First, let's go find the good captain. Someone needs my boot up his ass."


	14. Noveria 3

_**AN - Thanks to Reikson ... for patiently keeping me on track **_

* * *

Ventralis was really shocked to see them again. That look surprise was still etched on his face when Shepard shot him in the head.

Xander took plenty of mental photographs upon meeting his first Asari Matriarch. He wouldn't have said so in front of Liara, but those piercing eyes, that curve-hugging full-length pinstripe dress with the plunging neckline with the impressive cleavage to fill it, and the deadly biotic powers... well, Benezia was the total package.

She was definitely an easy ten on the scale of hotness. He mentally maneuvered Benezia onto his all-time greats list, right behind Anya and Ashley, but in front of Aria T'Loak and Harmony Kendell. That allowed him to finally kick Miss French, the giant praying mantis demon, off the list once and for all.

"You do not know the power of being a mother," Benezia intoned. "To take a life, and turn it toward happiness or despair." She gestured to the captive Rachni Queen. "Her children were to be ours, raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies."

Benezia strolled toward them. "I will not be moved to sympathy, no matter who you bring into this confrontation."

"That's not why Liara's here." Shepard snarled.

"It's not?" Xander asked. "...'cuz I totally thought the whole not-killing-us-on-sight factor was what we were going for."

"Indeed? What have you told them about me, Liara?"

"What could I say, mother?" Liara demanded. "Should I have explained how to kill you? That you're insane? Tell me, mother! What could I say?" She was all but screaming when she finished talking.

"If I have a vote, I say all of the above." Xander muttered.

"Your insolence is a poor mask for your fear, immortal." Benezia snapped at Harris.

"I think of it less as a mask and more of a goes-with-anything accessory-" Xander paused. "Wait...what did you just call me?"

Benezia snorted, "The Butcher Of Torfan, the newest Council Spectre, arriving with an Urdnot. One of the greatest tactical minds that the Krogan have ever produced, and my daughter? Who just happens to be an expert in ancient and lost civilizations? You want me to believe it a mere coincidence that they're accompanied by an immortal. Do you take me for a fool?" the Matriarch snapped.

"...Then YOU know what he is." Shepard said, suspiciously.

"Indeed... him and all those like him. Was that why you joined with them against me, Liara? In the hope that you'll learn the secrets of creation? The answers to all of the lost mysteries?"

"Enough, Mother, this is getting us nowhere," Liara cut her off. "What are you and Saren trying to accomplish? Surely you cannot believe that all of the destruction you've unleashed is for the greater good."

"Oh, but it is, Little Wing, " Benezia smiled, a fanatical gleam in her eye. "Thanks to Saren, I see now that it is only through the return of the Reapers that the Asari can reach their full potential. The unworthy will be swept aside in order to make room for a new Asari Matriarchy. We will no longer dominate from the shadows, but from on high. We will be Goddesses. Submit yourselves now, and a place may be found for you in the new order."

Xander's slow clapping broke the silence that followed. "Nice," he said with scorn "Do you know how long it's been since I heard a decent bad-guy monologue?"

Shepard shook her head as she laughed. "We just killed our way through your army of rent-a-thugs. Do you really think that this will be any different?"

Benezia's smile was cold. "You killed a few disposable minions. Hardly the challenge that one would expect from an eleventh-hour battle."

Wrex snickered. "I was beginning to wonder when this was going to get interesting."

Benezia looked at them. "Have you ever faced an Asari Commando unit before? Few humans have. The least-trained among them spend decades... not years, but decades, learning combat skills. After that, comes training in the use of biotics. And we Asari have had thousands of generations to perfect our biotic training. And by the time an Asari reaches my age, her combat skill and power easily eclipses anything that you humans have ever produced."

Xander felt a odd sensation, a nagging feeling that he was missing something. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard, recalling his many lessons with Willow in fighting mental domination. That's when he felt it; the screen on his perception, the cloud that had been blinding them to danger.

"Boss!" he shouted. "She's been messing with our heads! Concentrate! Focus, and you'll see them!"

Shepard looked around as the room seemed to shimmer like it was an oasis coming into focus. Surrounding them on all sides was an army of Geth Troopers and Asari commandos. Benezia had not only been prepared for their arrival, but had somehow found a way to shield the true strength of her forces from the squad's eyes.

Shepard looked around at the guns facing her, and then turned back to regard Benezia. "You really expect me to believe that you'd kill your own daughter?"

Benezia shrugged. "I now realize that I should've been stricter with her."

Shepard looked around the room, and then leaned over to Xander. "If you've got a way out of this, now would be the time to spring it."

"Sorry, boss, I'm all out of miracles." Xander muttered.

"What are you worried about? You'll survive this, anyway." Wrex pointed out.

"It still hurts when I die, Wrex, and the only thing worse then dying in the middle of a firefight is waking up in the middle of one." Xander snapped.

Life has a way of tossing you a gimme every so often. Xander had seen that happen a thousand times and had come to believe it wholeheartedly. Still, what happened next ranked a hard eleven, even his scale of weird.

Xander's omnitool gave a determined bleep. In hindsight, he recalled setting the thing for silent alerts, specifically so he would not be distracted during tense moments like the one that he was currently experiencing. He looked at it and saw an incoming email from Wicca-girl. Willow's old email account.

That should have been impossible; he hadn't seen Willow since Dawn's funeral. He'd spoken with her infrequently since then, but the last message they'd exchanged was a few decades back.

It'd been a heads-up about that artifact procurement gig on Shanxi. She'd described it as easy job that would be perfect for him. Instead, he'd ended up being at Ground Zero for a pivotal battle of the First Contact War, fighting for his life alongside a trio of mercenaries fighting a group of Turians that had been trying to capture a mysterious and dangerous artifact.

Xander looked at her message, which had a single command in the title; Get Down. Xander still remembered the rules; when Willow Rosenberg tells you to get down, you get the hell down.

"Boss, stop and drop right now!" he screamed as he hit the deck.

Shepard, Liara, and Wrex followed him to the floor just as every lighting fixture in the room overloaded and sent arcs of electricity everywhere. The arcs jumped from one Geth Trooper to another, frying all of them in a timespan of seconds. Several of them even blew up, the explosions taking out nearby Asari commandos; in a single moment, the tide of battle had been completely reversed.

Benezia struggled to get up off the floor, from where the explosions had thrown her. Fury was etched on her face.

Shepard sneered at her. "You'll give up now and tell me what Saren's up to, or this is gonna get ugly."

Her only response was to flare her biotics, and suddenly the debris of her troops rose off the floor. A windstorm tossed the flotsam and jetsam through the air with increasing speed. Liara concentrated and a Barrier flared into existence. The objects battered at the protective shield as they picked up speed.

"Ah, Little Wing," Benezia sneered. "Your Barriers weren't nearly this strong when last we sparred. What has made you so strong? Surely, it can't be the humans. Such short lives... they have maybe a century and they're gone. But maybe that's what you love; knowing that it'll be over before you're forced to feel anything real."

The bubble surrounding the team wavered. Benezia's mini-hurricane swirled ever closer.

"That's it, isn't it?" Benezia sneered, "You actually think that you're falling in love with one of them."

Xander saw several of the objects gouging holes in the walls. Shepard reached out and put her hand on Liara.

"Liara, don't listen to her. Block it out. You have what it takes to beat her, I know you do. TAKE HER DOWN! THAT'S AN ORDER!"

Liara closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the awkward hundred-and-six year-old archaeologist was gone. The Asari in her place narrowed her eyes. "Yes, Commander," she hissed as she fought back. The bubble firmed and began to push back against the storm.

"Xander... her feet," Liara managed. Xander looked down and saw a power lead sparking behind Benezia.

"On it, Doc," Xander reported, training his omni-tool on the lead. A burst of power quickly caused the thing to explode, making it jump and strike Benezia with whip-like force. The Matriarch shuddered, the pain of being electrocuted broke her concentration. The whirlwind in the room faltered for a few critical moments.

"Wrex, take her down!" Shepard shouted.

The Krogan broke from cover and charged the Matriarch, slamming into her with all the force of a truck. Benezia quickly found her body being hurled into a plasteel cage that dominated the room, before being sprawled upon the ground, gasping for breath.

Benezia looked up at the beast within the cage. Her ears ringing from the force of Wrex's blow. Slowly, Benezia could make out a kind of music just at the edge of hearing. The growing and swelling melody drowned out another song. A song that she hadn't even noticed, a melody in her mind with black and ugly notes. The black tune was being pushed aside by this new and brighter harmony. Benezia looked around as if she was seeing the world for the first time in months.

"Liara?" Benezia whispered.

Liara knelt by her mother as Benezia stared unblinking at the huge Rachni Queen.

"What is she doing?" Shepard growled.

"Waiting for me to kill her." Wrex sneered and started forward, but Xander held up his hand, pressing it against the massive lizard's armored chest.

"Wait, I think they're communicating," Xander explained.

"Wait, you can understand that thing?" Shepard asked.

Xander shrugged, "A Doctor friend that I know once explained that the reason we don't understand each other is because we just don't listen enough. Considering I have yet to see a language that he can't speak, I think that he might have a point." He explained as he tapped at his omni-tool.

"What are you doing?" Shepard asked him.

"Writing an app. You want to hear what I can hear, Boss? Well, short of making you like me, the only other way is to fix it so you can listen."

Suddenly the room was filled with a sweet singing. "...B-I-N-G-O and bingo was his name-oh." Xander sang happily.

Shepard gaped at the loudspeaker before turning back to Xander, "Are you kidding me? You re-wrote the universal translator?"

"I've had a LONG time to learn how do all the stuff that used to be amazing to me, Boss. and I do mean a long... long time."

Benezia bowed before the Rachni Queen's cage. Its strange melodies left a smile of joy on the Matriarch's face. "Thank you." She whispered.

"What is it doing?" Liara asked. "Mother?"

"Her song is countering the indoctrination." Benezia explained.

Shiala, Benezia's acolyte on Feros, had explained that Saren's compelling personality was being amplified by his vessel Sovereign. Somehow, just being near Sovereign made you WANT to follow Saren's commands and do his bidding. His cause became yours, his morals became your law, and this force had caused Shiala to willingly give herself to the Thorian. Even though she knew what kind of danger that she'd likely to be in.

"You mean her song cuts off the indoctrination?" Shepard asked.

"No," an odd voice came from the rooms' loudspeakers. "The Black Song... still hums... in the deepest reaches... of her mind. At best, I can... keep it at bay... given her strength."

Shepard approached the cage. "You're the Rachni Queen? You control the Rachni we've been fighting?"

"No... the needle men... took our children... from us. They could not... hear their mother. Their minds... were lost... to fear... and silence."

Shepard rolled her eyes. "Xander, translation please?"

"The BH science team snatched her eggs as soon as she popped them out. I'm guessing that Rachni Queens start teaching their kids in-utero, soi to speak. She sings over the eggs, that's how they learn... well, everything that a Rachni needs to know. BH must have separated them from her as soon as they could, so they could try establishing control themselves. Thing is, once separated from their mom, the kids went feral."

Wrex nodded. "My people used to say that Rachni Queens could control their offspring from long distances. But if you killed the queen before the eggs had developed or hatched, the Rachni came out insane, they'd attack like wild varren." the Krogan rumbled.

" ...sort of like what's been going on around here, Boss." Xander filled in.

"Was this what you'd hoped to accomplish, Benezia?" Shepard hissed angrily. But the Asari shook her head.

"My goal was the location of the lost Mu Relay."

"Okay, I'll bite," Xander sighed. "What's so important about finding a lost Mass Relay? And how the Hell did you manage to lose a Mass Relay? They're kind of hard to miss, what with the largeness and all."

"The Conduit, a really big explosion, and an even bigger ball of dust." Benezia's response was unusually human in its light sarcasm.

Something about her reply made Xander burst into laughter. "I like her! Can we keep her? Please?"

"She was serving Saren not too long ago." Shepard pointed out,

"I still hear Saren's whispers in my mind. With the help of the Rachni Queen, I have more control. But I will never entirely be free, not until Sovereign is destroyed. And perhaps not even then."

"If you... permit me... to leave this place... I will keep... the Black Song... from her." The Rachni Queen offered.

"What?" Shepard was mystified. "After everything she's done to you, you'd still trust her and protect her?"

"Our Mothers... sang of the Black Song... Crying... as it soured... our souls... making us black and sick... turning us to seeding chaos... and destruction... across the sea of stars."

Xander didn't even wait for Shepard to ask.

"Whatever Saren's screwing around with may have started the Rachni War."

"She's blaming the Rachni War on the Reapers?"

"Makes sense when you think about it, Boss," Xander replied. "If we're too busy fighting each other, it only leaves us weaker for when the Reapers finally show up."

"...And Saren has the location of the Mu Relay. Which means that whatever system it links to is the location of The Conduit, and the key to the return of the Reapers."

"We must inform the Council." Liara insisted. "With this information, they can protect the Queen and keep it from harm."

"Keep it from harm?" Wrex sneered. "Are you an idiot? Rachni are dangerous! Millions of my people died to put these things down. Now you and the idiot humans want to bring them back?"

Shepard looked at Xander, "Aren't you going to chime in here?"

"One of my closest friends, someone I came to trust with my life... well, she once tried to kill me. Came damn close to doing it, too. My life was saved by someone that I would've happily seen dead. I might not be here right now if I'd gotten my way."

"...and your point is?"

"Boss, I learned a long time ago that sometimes you have to trust your instincts. You do that, and you almost never screw up."

Shepard nodded, "Well then I guess I know what I have to do." She said as she reached for the controls.

* * *

_Shepard's thoughts..._

_Saren needed the Mu Relay to find the Conduit. Benezia had taken the Relay's location from the Rachni Queen's mind. Apparently, since her people had once controlled that area of space and thus remembered the location, the Queen could somehow remember it as well._

_And once I had the location of the Relay, I knew that I had to find Saren soon. He'd been one step ahead of me all this time and that had to change. I still didn't know where Saren was heading off to beyond the Mu Relay. And in the meantime, I had other problems on my plate. Xander could not have timed his revelation any better if he'd tried. I was close enough on Saren's heels and just dependent enough on my entire crew including Xander I literally did not have the time or resources to be suspicious of his motives for keeping what he was from me. I had to deal with the more immediate fallout of my choices._

* * *

"Is this report accurate, Commander? You found Rachni on Noveria?"

"...and then released the Queen?" the Turian Councilor snarled. "What were you thinking?"

Shepard's reply was fairly smart-ass free. For her, anyway. "Since Saren's plans seemed to hinge on keeping her tortured and imprisoned, I figured that going the other way might be a good idea."

The Asari councilor sighed. One consistency that she'd noticed was that Shepard's reports to the Council stayed polite and congenial; that is, until her Turian counterpart opened his big, fat mouth to say anything.

"...and what of Benezia, Commander? Did you manage to apprehend her?" The Asari Councilor interjected, mostly to head off the inevitable argument that would end up with Shepard abruptly disconnecting their conversation, as had become her habit when she was annoyed by the Turian councilor's chronic poor choice of words.

"Benezia was in the hotlab when BH's Neutron Purge System was activated. According to my Tech Sergeant, there won't be much left of her, given how close she was to the reactor."

"We understand." The Salarian Councilor replied.

"Please extend our sympathies to Doctor T'soni." The Asari Councilor said "I'm sure she is upset by the outcome."

"... Assuming she wasn't a part of this from the very beginning." The Turian Councilor sneered, "Honestly, Commander, how can you let her just wander around the Normandy unsupervised? What kind of puppy-and-horse operation are you running over there?"

As if given a cue, Shepard rolled her eyes, "The term, Councilor, is Dog-and-Pony show, and I think that technical glitch with our communication system is back. Isn't that right, Joker?" the Commander said.

The holographic image of the Council de-rezzed as Joker answered, "Oh, yeah... Sorry about that! Signal lost, Commander." She could hear his snickering, and smirked.

Shepard turned to Xander. "So what happened in the Hot Lab? I thought we were done?"

"So did I. I'm not sure what happened. If you need to call it something, call it a miracle."

"Is this kind of stuff going to keep happening?" Shepard asked.

Xander snorted. "Weird and unexplainable things happening while chasing ancient, lost secrets? Yeah, you'll get used to that. So, are WE good?" he asked.

"You have a special ability," Shepard replied. "...just like everybody else aboard this ship and you'll notice that I make use of their skills. You can't be killed by conventional means. I'm sure I'll find a way to make use of that at some point."

"It's not a party trick, Boss. It's like I said to Wrex, I feel it every time I die; the pain, the fear... everything. I mean, to quote a really outrageous man... I have died so many times." Xander's face took on that world-weary expression again.

Shepard was stunned. She'd never really associated her wisecracking tech specialist with the type of exhaustion that she usually saw in veterans of the Skyllian Blitz or the Torfan Assault.

"Being... dragged back to life..." Xander murmured. "It's like every last aspect of your entire self suddenly being thrown onto broken glass. And the worst part is that I get to wake up and know that, somewhere down the road, I'll get to experience that all over again. So I actually try and avoid death whenever possible."

Feeling sobered by this raw declaration, Shepard could only shrug. "That's a very human reaction, makes me inclined to keep trusting you. You're scared to die and you fight hard to avoid it."

"So what happens when the Council finds out you let Benezia go, along with the Rachni Queen?"

"If I left the Queen to the mercy of the Council, she'd end up exploited. If being on Noveria taught me anything, it's that." Shepard answered. "As long as Benezia is with the Queen, she's free of Saren's control. Letting them go hurts him and anything that hurts him is a good thing."

Xander handed her a datapad. "Hackett called, he wants you to look into some missing scientists."

Shepard nodded. "...They were all working on the same project and the last one is somewhere in the Kepler-Verge system."

Xander startled at his commander's advanced knowledge. "You already know?" he asked.

"Someone sent me the same massage while we were at Port Hanshan. Whoever it was covered their tracks pretty well. They even included a detail that Hackett might not know; the project that they were all working on, turns out that they were all on Akuze right around the same time."

"Akuze?" Xander stared into space. Her words seemed to transport him to another place, another time.

"Whatever Saren's up to, I'm going to need your head in the game, Harris." Shepard replied. "If accomplishing that means dealing with this, then I'm fine with that."

She watched Xander's face and the emotions playing across it. Shepard nodded, musing to herself, "Definitely a human reaction," as she left him behind in the comm room.

His omnitool bleeped again with another message from Willow. She'd relayed an alert from Noveria traffic control. An executive-class shuttle had disappeared from Binary-Helix's exclusive landing pad. Obviously wherever she was, Willow was tracking the escaping Rachni Queen and Benezia.

Xander thought about asking Willow about the Shanxi Job. Did she know what had happened to that merc, Jack Harper? Or Saren's brother, Desolas? Did she know what that Artifact had really been? What it could do?

In the end, he just sent back a message asking if she was okay. Her only response was a simple phrase before terminating the connection. It told him everything he needed to know about what his oldest and dearest friend was up to; that she was, in many ways, still the girl he'd grown up with in Sunnydale for all those many years. And, just how different and dangerous Willow Rosenberg had become over the centuries.

"The net is both vast and infinite... I'm always watching, so be good."


	15. Missing Scientists

**Thanks to Reikson for the support and help and generally putting up with my flights of fancy****  
**_

Shepard forced open the reluctant door. the soft gasp of its hydraulics yielding to the woman's determined strength.

Xander slid aside, with the door hacked open, the hard-light construct of his omnitool winked out of sight.

Wrex racked the slide on his shotgun, exposing its heatsink and causing a plume of steam to escape. All for the sake of drama, really; he could've just let the heat sink itself naturally. "Dead and done, just the way I like 'em." He sneered.

Bodies littered the room behind them. Mercenary scum too stupid to notice how outmatched they were against the Normandy squad.

Wrex's desire to be included on this, and Shepard's acceptance of his aid, was an unspoken relaxing of the tense atmosphere that had erupted after Shepard's decision to let the Rachni Queen live. The Krogan had been furious and spewed a lot of verbal venom before dropping the subject and refusing to discuss it further. Urdnot Wrex was a proud Krogan and he had every intention to go on being proud, but that didn't mean that he didn't know who was the Battlemaster aboard the Normandy.

A tense scene unfolded before them; a man pointing a gun to another man's head. The scientist wore the rumpled and stained uniform of his profession, his thinning hair scrambled to cover a brow slick with sweat; a nervous reaction no doubt due to the large gun, the muzzle of which rested on the ridge of the scientist's , it was the other man who grabbed Xander's attention. His build was thin and pale with ghost-like skin stretched over taut muscles. His hardsuit had seen better days, a low-end model that mercenary thugs favored for the flimsy aura of badass that you gained by owning something with the laughable name of Assassin in the it wasn't the bargain-basement hardsuit that caught Xander's attention, but rather the man himself.

A dead man; or at least, he was supposed to be dead.

Dead, along with the fifty other marines whose lives ended on that night of screaming and fear on Akuze.

"Stay back!" he screamed. "All I want is this bastard!"

Shepard's gun came up to cover both of them. "Drop the weapon and step away from the doctor, soldier!" she said with cold finality. "Or I will fire!"

"You fire and I might end up shooting him anyway!" The man snarled, his nervous stance and the tensed muscles of his body giving away the truth about his pretended confidence.

"Toombs?" Xander squawked as he stepped out from behind Shepard. She turned her gaze just enough to notice the absolute shock on the immortal man's face.

Toombs looked up. That voice... it couldn't be. "Harris? I saw you die! The Thresher Maw's claw... it went right through you!"

"The claw went straight through! I almost bled out, but I survived!" Xander lied effortlessly as he looked at Toombs, agape. "But I saw you dragged under by the Thresher Maw right after that."

"**They** took me, Harris. The scientists... guys like this asshole."

"You can't believe this man!" The doctor cried out. "He's delusional!"

"They were studying the Thresher Maws!" Toombs ranted. "They LET them hit our unit, just to see what would happen! I woke up in a holding cell. They were delighted that I'd survived. Now they had someone that they could run tests on."

"What did they do to you, soldier?" Shepard asked, ever the picture of calm.

"There's no proof of any of this! I demand a fair trial!" the scientist shouted.

"Sergeant Harris was on Akuze." Shepard snapped, "And, up until now, everyone assumed that he was the only survivor."

Toombs continued his tale. "He's part of some secret organization," he snarled. "They call themselves Cerberus."

They all started at that revelation. Cerberus again? It was starting to seem like every dark and depraved sight they'd witnessed on this trip had involved Cerberus in some way.

"They've been treating me like a lab animal. I'd probably still be locked up, but someone attacked a bunch of their bases and in all the confusion, I got free. He deserves to die, Harris! For you... for me... for everyone in the unit... are you with me?" Toombs was almost frantic in his fanaticism.

Xander shook his head. "No, Toombs. I... we have to take him in. We have to... Toombs, you're not a murderer. You're better then this."

"Don't tell me who I am!" Toombs snapped, spittle flying from his lips. "Have you ever had Thresher Maw acid in YOUR veins? You got out with a few scratches and a scary reputation! I was tortured for years! You can't judge me! You don't have the right!"

Xander suddenly rushed Toombs, who panicked and swung his gun around. But Xander's hand locked around the wrist of his gun hand, cranking the arm backwards till it groaned in protest and the gun dropped to the ground. His foot kicked hard and Toombs crashed to the floor, Xander's weight on top of him.

Shepard watched as that hard light blade Xander had slid into view. Its point indenting the skin at the man's throat.

Shepard quickly grabbed the scientist and twisted an arm behind the man's back before shoving him into Wrex's arms.

The Krogan obliged her by latching onto the wriggling doctor, shoving the muzzle of his shotgun up against the base of the man's skull. Leaning down, he rumbled menacingly, "Don't move. My trigger finger gets itchy easily and we Krogan do NOT like doctors and scientists."

Shepard nodded and turned back toward Xander, and found herself staring at a stranger wearing the face of a man that she thought she had known. Rage curled his boyish features into a vicious snarl, his body was tense and trembling. Hell Shepard could've sworn that his eyes were even glowing.

"Don't have the right?" Xander snarled at Toombs. "I have every right! I have a right to know what happened to my comrades! I have a right to know if it really was my fault that our friends died!"

Images of The Initiative flashed before his mind's eye.

"I have a right to know if I serve a government that would feed its own soldiers to animals just for sake of project data!"

Harris ranted, remembering a group of high-ranking Generals and US Senators who'd done just that.

"I have a right to know who profited from the deaths of our brothers and sisters ... our unit! And if this SOB knows anything at all, then I swear he's going to see the inside of a courtroom even if I have to drag his lying carcass there personally! He's going to tell what he knows, he's going to tell what he did to you, and what he did to the rest of them!"

Toombs wriggled futilely against Xander's restraining weight before snapping,

"Are you kidding me, Harris? Weren't you listening? It was a secret project! I don't know who or what Cerberus is, but they'll never let their Ops go public! If he knew anything that could hurt them, you think they'd have let me get this close? If we don't avenge the unit now, they might never get justice!"

"...And if you kill him, then whoever was behind HIM stays protected in the shadows! If you kill him, then they get away with what they did! Maybe one day, they arrange for you to commit suicide in some out-of-the-way place that would never be traced back to them!"

Toombs froze up. "Huh. Never thought of it like that..." he mumbled. "Okay... I'm no killer. They couldn't make me one. I'm a soldier. I'll...I'll do my duty. I'll tell them what I know."

Nodding, Xander rose from the floor, the blade from his omni-tool sliding back into hiding. Xander reached out to pull Toombs off the ground before pulling him into a tight embrace.

"Those bastards can't hurt you anymore, Toombs." Xander whispered.

Toombs started weeping, sobs shaking his tortured body.

Wayne breathed a sigh of relief until Shepard's cold eyes locked onto him. At a nod from her, Wrex's shotgun dug into his skull.

"Feeling lucky to be alive, huh, Doc?" she hissed. "Enjoy it while it lasts, 'cuz if you really were working for Cerberus, then you and I both know that your only hope in Hell of living long enough to testify is to give the Alliance enough intel to justify keeping you safe from the people that Cerberus can send after you."

Dr. Wayne turned his head enough to look at her, and Shepard felt a strange surge of pleasure and satisfaction at the look of raw fear in his face. But as he turned to watch Xander, she noticed something else... was that recognition she saw in Wayne's eyes?

Was the good doctor finally remembering?

Finally putting a face to the name?

Finally seeing not the solder standing before him, but a corpse that he'd checked and dismissed five years ago, leaving Xander for dead?

An hour later, Ashley found Xander perched on top of the Mako. He was headfirst inside the machine's internal systems.

She pulled him out of the tank, "I thought the Skipper took you off-duty until we reached Virmire?" She grumbled while still managing a smile.

"She did. This is just a little preventative maintenance, Ash." Xander replied. His quiet voice and nervous twitching was so out of character for him.

Ashley found herself at a loss. She wondered again why Shepard had insisted on her delivering the datapad clutched in her hand.

"Hackett's people just took charge of Toombs and the good doctor," Ashley reported. "Wayne's already screaming that he wants all kinds of immunity and, of course, protection. You'd think that the Devil himself was waiting in the wings for him."

Xander sighed. "Nah, the Devil doesn't sweat small details like him. The Father Of Lies has badder fish to fry."

"If it matters, I think you did the right thing; Toombs doesn't know it now, but you saved him." Williams commented.

"I screwed the pooch, Ash. I risked the hostages' life and... I'm tired, Ash. I'm really... really tired."

Williams shook her head, "Why not grab some rack time? There's no telling what we're walking into on Virmire. You might need the rest."

"No, I mean... I'm tired of being the guy who lived. The guy who got lucky. I'm tired of being the guy who didn't DIE and that's it." Xander took a long, deep breath. "All I ever wanted was to help people, and make a difference. How did everything get so screwed up?"

Ashley chuckled bleakly. "I'm tired, too. Tired of being afraid to be anything less then the best, tired of living in my grandfather's shadow, of feeling like nothing I do will ever wash away the stink of being related to the guy who lost Shanxi."

"Actually, your grandfather was a pretty cool dude," Xander froze, realizing what he'd said. "I - I mean, he seemed like a cool dude... from what I read... in the history books, 'cuz that's the only way I could know about a guy who's thirty years years older then me, and I'm going to stop talking now."

Ashley chuckled. "Either you're really bad at this or this Dawn was one hell of a woman."

"There is option C, you know. I'm really bad at this AND Dawn was one hell of a woman."

"This is why I like poetry. Other people say what I feel better then I ever could."

"I still like poetry. Got way into the beatnik for a while back when I was in school. I was going to leave school and travel the land. Experience life; I was going to be like Kerouac and Burroughs and Cassidy."

"What happened?"

"Got into an old car which broke down near Oxnard, I've tried to purge the memory of the rest of that summer from my mind... especially the male stripping."

"You had an actual car? With an internal combustion engine? Wow, I thought those were decommissioned years ago?"

"It was my uncle's... he liked old things. He's gone now. Like everything else."

"Do you remember any of it? The poetry, I mean?" Xander closed his eyes in thought. "I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up. Running from one falling star to another 'til I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion."

He opened his eyes to see Ashley gazing off into some unknown middle distance. He shrugged. "I guess Kerouac isn't for everyone."

Ashley punched him in the arm. "I like it, you dope. I'm just picturing it. Trying to see what he must've been like. What you must've been like, back then."

"Pretty much the same butt-monkey I am now, it seems." Xander sighed, bitterness in his voice.

"Xander, you aren't the product of some twist of fate. Who you are as a person got you the love of a good woman - this Dawn woman that I've heard so much about. Your drive and talents got you though school and training, your character and personality, that's how you survived on Akuze and that got you here ... serving on the most advanced warship in the fleet. Every step on the journey that got you here; you had to choose to be the best you could be. Own that, don't hide from it; 'cuz it's nothing to be ashamed of... It's why I like you."

"You like me?"

"You sound shocked."

"The kind of girls I end up with are usually demonic in nature, temperament, or both."

"Oh, I can be a demon, Xander Harris. " Ashley said, "Trust me on this."

She leaned on and claimed his lips in a fiery kiss. Xander's shock passed quickly and his hands slid down Ashley's back, hands curving around to hold and caress the muscles of her back and sides. He pulled her into his body, feeling her warmth molding and melding with his own heat. He suddenly had a rational moment and backed his head away from hers, but her hand came up curving through his hair and holding him in place.

As she had told him once, The women in her family; and Ashley especially, did things when they were ready; not before and definitely not after. Ashley was ready; end of story.

She looked up at him through hooded eyes; a predatory smile on her face.

"You aren't just a survivor, Xander. Anyone can survive; you beat the odds and you won."

Xander looked into her eyes and surrendered to her grip.

"I can get into winning. Winning's very cool," he mumbled as she guided his head back down for another incendiary kiss.

And he let himself go; let himself feel it again. That flush of passion at being with someone who wanted him just for being himself ... he'd almost forgotten what it was like. To be lost in that hot moment.

It felt good

Kaidan Alenko backed away, slipping into the shadows. Every instinct had told him not to follow Ashley, that what she was going to do down here wasn't his business, but he had totally failed to follow his own advice.

It wasn't like she hadn't warned him. She'd been honest and even compassionate; she hadn't lied about where her heart was beginning to lean. He found his way back to the service access shafts that some of the crew used to bypass the notoriously slow elevators.

She had made her choice and he could be cool with that.

Xander wasn't a bad guy; a little goofy, but he had a inner strength that even Kaidan could admire.

Coming in second to someone like that was as much a compliment as it was a disappointment.


	16. Virmire 1

_**Thanks to Reikson who endured my recent vacation in Arkham City ... 52% and counting baby **_

Kaidan Alenko's first impression of the surface of Virmire was its resemblance to the Vancouver beach front property that his father had retired to, except for the strange spider-like creatures that walked about on thin delicate looking legs.

Waves of water crashed ceaselessly against the shore while the alien creatures barely reacted to the Mako as Xander piloted the machine past them at near suicidal speeds and down a riverbed, bracketed on one side by a steep cliff face jutting into the air and on the other side by rocky reefs. A deep, deep, impenetrable ocean lay just beyond those rocks. The Mako's sensors refused to say what lurked in those cold dark waters and Alenko tugged nervously at the safety restraints holding him in place.

The Normandy arrived on Virmire and found the remote planet under siege. Antiaircraft guns formed the backbone of a static defense grid the likes of which none of the crew had ever seen before.

Shepard was impressed; the Seige of Torfan might have ended very differently if those degenerate pirate bastards had protection like this.

"Scanners picking up multiple dropships, Commander." Tali reported, "...and a large structure, massive power output."

"The kind of power output that could take out an Alliance Frigate?" Shepard asked.

Tali nodded. "Easily..." she muttered aloud. "I don't see any dropships ahead, but that doesn't mean anything."

"Maybe we got lucky." Kaidan pondered. "Maybe their force is stretched too thin?"

Xander snorted. "If you're going to take bets like that, Alenko, then remind me not to let you go gambling at Flux."

"Meaning?"

It was Tali who answered him. "Geth can power themselves down to conceal themselves, Lieutenant Alenko. Their modular nature means that you could easily fit dozens of Geth into a space the size of this tank's interior. That was how Lady Benezia managed to slip hundreds of those things past the weapons screening on Noveria."

Kaidan looked at the scanner images in front of him. "So there aren't just a few dozen Geth up ahead, there might actually be a..."

"A few hundred," Tali replied. "And as soon as we fight any of them, from the smallest drone right up to a colossus... well, their networked intelligence will know we are here."

"...And right after that, Saren." Shepard snarled.

"And just to keep that warm and fuzzy feeling going," Xander reminded her, "...we're picking up Krogan. Lots and lots of Krogan."

"Keelah." Tali whispered as she watched the scenery whipping by her in a blur.

"Nervous?" Kaidan asked her.

"I know that Saren has to be stopped." The young Quarian mechanic shook her head. "But to command the loyalty of so many Geth... it galls me to think of this crazy Turian... the Geth belong to the Quarians and someday they will again."

"Tali, I don't think that the Geth belong to anyone at this point." Xander sighed. "They've clearly chosen to follow Saren."

"That is because of his vessel. No, when this is over, we have to find a way to bring the Geth back under Quarian control. That is the only way to prevent another attack like Eden Prime from happening again."

"You think we can prevent another Eden Prime by enslaving the Geth ... again?" Xander asked her wryly.

"Their sentience is a mistake, Xander. An error of programming. If your omnitool malfunctioned, you wouldn't just let it keep malfunctioning, would you? Especially if your life depended on it. No, you would fix it."

Xander looked at Tali like she had grown a second head. "Tali, there are about six different arguments that I could make right now. But they'd all sound a little hypocritical since I'm planning on killing a ton of Geth today, so lets just go with the whole agree to disagree thing, okay?"

Shepard decided to head off Tali's inevitable explosion whenever the topic of the Geth came up.

"Tali, you've done more for your people in the last few weeks by helping me stop Saren then anything that any Quarian has done in three hundred years."

"I want to thank you again for giving me that Geth system data, Commander."

Shepard smiled. "You manage to decrypt it yet?"

"I'm a long way from a solution," Tali looked at Xander. "...it would go faster if someone would let me borrow their omni-tool's decryption programs." The Quarian grumbled, her meaning clear.

"I'm sure the Tech Sergeant would be more then happy to help." Shepard replied.

"I wanted to ask last night, but Xander was... busy." Tali muttered. "I believe he and Chief Williams were engaged in... routine maintenance."

IShepard snickered, "If your maintence is - only routine - then I hope the Gunnery Chief wasn't too disappointed."

Xander shot her a dark look before braking to avoid sailing the Mako past the rocky shoals.

"Geez, Harris, you in a hurry to meet your maker?" Kaidan hissed, antsy at having avoided death by drowning with only inches to spare.

Xander ignored him as the Mako rounded the natural curve of the riverbed to reveal a pair of Geth Armatures. The two machines started blasting away at them with plasma fire.

Xander gunned the engine and swerved around a rocky outcropping, letting the weathered stone take the blast that would've shattered the Mako's shields.

"Boss, if you could grab the turret, please?" Xander snarled. "I'd try and outrun them, but Mister Backseat over there hates my reckless driving."

Shepard snickered as she slid into the gunnery position. "Now, now, kids, be nice or I'll turn us around right now."

Harris had been on edge ever since they had entered the system. The situation with Toombs had clearly left a mark on him somehow, and Kaidan was sure that SOMETHING had happened on Noveria. But Shepard wasn't saying anything and the rest of the Noveria ground team were equally closemouthed. But Liara had an odd look in her eyes whenever she looked at Xander.

"Lieutenant, their shields please!" Shepard shouted, snapping him out of his thoughts as she blazed away with the Mako's chaingun. "Tali, shut down their weapons."

"On it, ma'am!" Alenko shouted as he and the Quarian popped out of the tank and aiming their omnitools at the pair of heavy Geth weapons platforms.

Their kinetic barriers shimmered and sparked as they were overloaded and their weapons died. Shepard's hail of fire promptly tore into the metal-polymer shell of their armor, dropping the both of them.

Suddenly, a huge Geth rose to replace the smaller weapons platforms; a quadrupedal design known as a Colossus.

"Join the Marines, see the galaxy, meet interesting people..." Xander griped at the top of his lungs as he drove the Mako straight toward the synthetic.

"...and blow them up!" Kaidan and Shepard chorused. Shepard turned the Mako's main rail-cannon upon the giant Geth. The explosive discharge from the heavy slug slammed into the Colossus and blasted its heavy bulk. It dropped into the swiftly flowing water, giving a high loud whine, and started struggling back to its feet.

"When I say the word, bail out." Xander growled as he drove the Mako at the Colossus while Shepard poured chaingun fire into the beast.

"Bail out?" Tali shouted, "Are you serious?"

"...As a heart attack, Tali." Xander snapped.

Kaidan would've argued, but Shepard was already cranking the hatchway open.

"Now!" Xander screamed.

He slowed the Mako enough and Tali, Kaidan, and Shepard, all bailed out of the still-moving Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

When they were clear, Xander gunned the engine and crashed into the walking tank again, bowling it over as he parked the tank right on top of the Colossus. The synthetic beast roared in its strange machine language, its legs thrashing about in a futile attempt at regaining its footing. If it followed protocol it would not use its weapons now until it managed to free itself from the Mako's weight.

"It's down! Hit it hard!" Shepard shouted, unleashing deadly fire from the Spectre prototype rifle that she'd been using lately.

"Understood!" Tali cried aloud as she reached behind her and pulled out an assault rifle that Kaidan had never seen before.

"What the hell is that?" Kaidan asked.

"I picked it up while we were in the Armstrong cluster!" Tali chirped cheerfully. "Xander helped me rebuild a Geth Assault Rifle!"

She raised the weapon to her shoulder and blazed away at the still-writhing Colossus. Kaidan could see the weapon's phasic rounds ripping right through the Geth's shielding; searing holes into the Colossus' dark armored skin.

Briefly wondering if Xander could get him one, he pulled out his own pistol, and the whole team hit the huge Geth with everything they had. It gave a final wailing cry before slumping to the ground, the light of its single eye fading as the synthetic beast died.

Xander backed the Mako away from the wreckage and then hopped out of it, dusting his hands off. "We came, we saw, we kicked Geth ass." He announced, looking smug.

Shepard snorted. "We took out ONE Geth, Harris. There's a whole army on this planet and Saren's in the middle of them. How's about we take out those AA guns, and find ourselves a rouge Spectre before we crack the champagne bottles?" she said, smirking at him.

"Way to harsh my buzz, Captain Downer." Xander grumbled.

"What was that, Sergeant? I'm not sure I heard you." The implied menace in her voice was unmistakable.

"I signaled my readiness to continue the mission, ma'am!" Xander shouted, reflexively standing at attention.

"That's what I thought, Sergeant." Shepard sneered. Strangely, nobody missed the hint of a smile on her face.

Xander would sass Gods and Demons, but even he knew not to cross the line with Shepard. Walk it, yes. Dance along it, occasionally. Cross it... never.

Tali insisted on probing the fallen Geth for any system data that might have survived the frying of their memory cores. Kaidan stood at her side, nervously scanning a distant structure with an AA gun perched on its roof.

Shepard pulled Xander back inside the Mako. "What's with you, Harris? Is there a problem I should know about?"

"I don't want to say." the Sergeant replied.

"I sent Williams down to see you last night. Did something happen?"

Xander scowled. "I've got a bad feeling about this one, Boss," he sighed, gritting his teeth as he gunned the engine.

Shepard reminded herself that Xander had seen a lot in his time, and his nervousness was probably a deeply-ingrained survival instinct. That having been said, though, Saren had to be their top priority.

"Maintain the objective, Harris." Shepard reminded him. "Maintain your focus, that's the real reason you've survived all these years."

"C'mon, Boss. You have to be wondering yourself; what's really going on? Why is he still here? It's not like I want to see the galaxy burn, but if you were Saren... Why would you still be sitting around on this rock, waiting to be discovered?"

Shepard paused."It would have to be important, something that I'd be willing to risk being captured over. When we find him, we can ask him; assuming I let him live that long."

"Experience says we aren't going to like the answers. Assuming we get any."

Shepard decided to follow her own advice. "Mount up, people!" she cried out.

Tali and Kaidan climbed back inside the Mako and sealed the hatch.

"Okay, people! We take down the static defenses and then rendezvous with the Salarians! Whatever Saren is up to on this planet, it stops today! Am I clear?"

**Moments Later ... **

Saren marched through the monitoring station, noticing that the Geth manning its consoles seemed agitated. He could understand when they were upset. And now, something clearly had them concerned.

"Show me," he snapped at one of the Geth, who pointed at the defense grid layout display.

One of the AA guns read as being offline. Saren interfaced with the controls bringing the vidmonitors online, he saw the Normandy sailing past the nonfunctional AA Guns unchallenged. As the rogue Spectre watched the display, scanners tracked the ship slipping in through the tiny hole in the defense grid's coverage.

Saren was no fool. "Shepard..." he hissed. "Remote command those guns! Get them back online and someone get me telemetry on where the rest of those damn Salarians are held up!"

He headed toward his inner sanctum, the Geth making way for him. He was the prophet bringing about the return of the Old Machines, after all.

"I thought I had more time," he muttered to himself. "But it would seem that our departure will be ahead of schedule."

The Geth in the room chattered around him. "Begin moving all essential equipment to Sovereign. All the supplies. " The ex-Spectre ordered, "I want all necessities loaded so we can depart for the Mu Relay. I will seek wiser counsel as to our next move."

He left them and took an elevator up to his private lab. The human scientist... what was her name? Ah yes, Burkle, Winifred Burkle... sat at her desk, her gaze fixed on a computer on her desk and ignoring him as she often did everything except her partner.

The Asari scientist, Rana Thanoptis, gasped upon seeing him and cringed. Obviously, she was hoping he'd ignore her. For that reason alone, he decided to give her some orders.

"Doctor Thanoptis, see to it that the Salarian test subjects are released from containment. Make sure that they're armed as well."

"Excuse me? You want to arm those... idiots? They'd be more likely to kill us then anyone who might be in the base!" She shrilled.

"Rana," Burkle snapped, "Do as the Turian commands. His mindless drones will not harm us."

"Yes, Mistress." Rana gulped and nodded at Saren, "I'll see to it myself, sir." she simpered.

"Once you're finished with that, come back here. I might have more duties for you." Saren hissed.

"I was thinking..."

Saren cut her off. "Don't make me send the Geth to find you, Doctor Thanoptis. Their experience with the Quarians has left them with a tendency to be rough with organics."

Thanoptis gulped. After looking fearfully at her partner, she scuttled out of the room.

Saren turned to the other scientist. "Doctor Burkle," he snapped, "I want to see the results data that you've gathered from the test subjects."

"Shall I put it into layman's terms for you, Turian? If you are not under the sway of that vessel yet, then you soon will be. At which point, you are screwed; scientifically speaking." Fred gave him a baleful look, her deep blue eyes shimmering. She snatched up a datapad and thrust it into his hands, sneering, "Right now, the plant on my desk has more independent thoughts then you do. The process will only get worse as time passes."

She turned back to the desk plant sitting next to her computer, muttering under her breath. If Saren didn't know better, he could've sworn the woman was ... talking to the plant.

Still, her work was staggeringly brilliant. More so then Thanoptis, The Asari also seemed to be the only one able to keep Burkle on task, he wondered if Thanoptis had taken the human as a bondmate, it was not unheard of and would explain Burkle's occasionally highhanded treatment of the Asari. He had even heard Burkle refer to Rana as "pet"

Still Saren had more immediate concerns so he dismissed his worries about his eccentric staff. focusing instead on his more immediate problem; indoctrination. He thought that he'd have more time. More time to prepare, to make sure that he was protected.

Then, IT spoke. "You should not have delayed. Your organic foolishness has left you vulnerable to the humans." IT was the voice, the same one that he'd been hearing for twenty years. "The humans have tracked you here. Perhaps it is they who should be offered the opportunity to serve. Perhaps it is they who can best be trusted to see our plans to completion."

"Have faith. Shepard and her people will not breach this facility until long after we have escaped. Your plans can not be stopped."

"Organics require faith, Saren." Sovereign boomed flatly. 'You need to believe in that which you cannot see, because you see just how small and pathetic you truly are. You seek meaning and purpose, surrounding your continued existence with illusions of meaning so that you can blind yourselves to the truth; that your only purpose is to serve those greater then you and ultimately to die in that service."

"Then allow me to serve. Let me prove my worth as I have done so in the past. Surely I've already shown that the Turians could be useful tools, that we should be given the chance to survive and to serve you."

"I have scanned those infiltrating this world, Saren. There are already signs that I have allowed you to waste too much time. The imperfection that you organics carry has manifested itself. It must be purged."

"And it will be purged." Saren snapped. "The human race will be wiped clean from the galaxy, along with all others who would oppose you. Then the Turians can take their rightful place as your new and true servants."

"It is true that some amongst the Protheans eventually proved useful to us. They were allowed some autonomy after we improved them." Sovereign rumbled.

"Continue to further our goals, Saren," the ancient starship added. "Prove yourself, and your people will be allowed to serve and survive."

But just as hope rose in his chest, Sovereign added a dark caveat. "Fail me, and the Turians will be as forgotten as have all other races that came before the Protheans." He could feel his fringes twitching as a strange chill ran down his back.


	17. Virmire 2

_**Thanks to Reikson for the help and advice and support, to the reviewers and PM's your good wishes and comments are helping me keep this work on track ... **_**I will eventually return to the oneshot format but Virmire is such a goldmine of narrative opportunity I just couldn't half-ass it ...plus a certain character needed some screen time. **

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Shepard climbed from the Mako. In front of her was a large camp, with a ship standing off to the side and covered in some kind of heavy cloth. The camp was filled with Salarians, and one of the them marched up to Shepard.

"Captain Kirrahe, Salarian Special Tasks Group."

"Joan Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. We got your message. Most of it, anyway. What's the situation?"

"You and your men have just landed in the middle of a hot zone. Every AA gun within ten miles knows you're here and will blast you out of the sky if you try and escape."

Shepard cursed, "What are we supposed to do now?"

Kirahee puffed in annoyance. "We sit tight and wait for the troops. I assume that the rest of the Council's forces are in high orbit?"

Xander snickered, but it was Kaidan who answered.

"Sorry, Captain, but WE are your reinforcements." Alenko explained.

"What? You're ALL they sent? I requested a fleet!" The Salarian gasped.

"Your transmission came in on a mission-critical channel but was little more then static." Shepard explained. "Since they already have me searching for Saren, they figured it was best to send me to find out what was going on."

"Hey, at least you know that when they're sitting around doing nothing, it doesn't just piss US off." Xander muttered.

Kaidan tried being diplomatic. "It's a balancing act, it has to be. You can't expect the Council to just drop everything on our say-so."

"Why not?" Xander ranted. "Why give someone the authority of a Spectre if you're just going to ignore them until it's too late to do anything about it?"

"We don't even know what Saren is doing here and you want to unleash hell on the planet?" Kaidan barked back.

"He's building an army of Krogan warriors." Captain Kirrahe announced. His words were like a bomb, silencing everyone.

"Great. Krogan mercenaries," Xander sighed. "How is a guy on the run for his life affording the cost of Krogan Mercs?"

"...By promising them a cure for the genophage." the Salarian replied.

A deathly silence fell. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Shepard asked quietly.

"Saren's claiming to have a cure for the Genophage. It's lured many to his banner. At this point, he has a veritable horde of Krogan warriors."

"Well, now we know where all the Krogan we're picking up came from." Shepard sighed,

"I sent several of my men to obtain a sample of the cure. None of them made it back, but the last transmission I got indicate that it's some kind of injection."

"A cure for the Genophage." Wrex rumbled. "How is that even possible?"

"It took the original team almost a year of study to invent the original virus, not to mention the debate about making it in the first place... How Saren managed to find a cure in such a short time..." The captain trailed off, lost in thought.

"Wasn't Binary-Helix working on a cure? There was something about it in the news, I'm sure." Kaidan muttered.

"They failed," Kirahee said. "Trust me, the Genophage wasn't easy to make. Its complexity would take years to understand, never mind curing it. I don't know how the Turian managed it."

"What does it matter?" Wrex snarled. "What matters is that there's a cure. As long as we're here, let's take it."

Kirrahe shook his head. "If that cure leaves this planet, the Krogan will become unstoppable ... Again. I won't make the same mistake."

"We are not a mistake, Salarian!" Wrex roared in Kirrahe's face before stomping off.

Xander snorted. "Oh, great! We got an army of pissed off Krogan between us and a genocidal whack-job! ...And Admiral Ackbar here decides to piss off the only one willing to work WITH us! Great strategic thinking there, you-..."

"Harris!" Shepard's shout cut him off from saying something crass.

"Sorry, got carried away." Xander mumbled.

"Carry yourself back." Shepard snarled.

"Is the Krogan going to be a problem, Spectre?"

"Not your problem. I'll take care of it." Shepard spun on her heel, eating up the distance between herself and Wrex with huge strides.

Kaidan couldn't hear their words, but their body language spoke loudly enough for those with eyes to see them.

The cold set of Shepard's face said that she was being hard-nosed about things. The base and the cure had to be destroyed. Wrex could either get with the program or face the consequences.

Wrex's back stiffened, his fists clenching. He wouldn't back down, not this time. It was his people's future at stake.

They pulled weapons on each other.

Ashley started to expand her shotgun, but Xander laid a hand on her shoulder. "Let them work it out, Ash. She's got this, you know her."

"He's pulled a gun on her."

"Remember your sister Sarah? Same thing here."

"Wrex isn't a schoolyard bully and wannabe-rapist. he's a pissed off Krogan and This is a military operation."

"It **is** the same, you let Sarah handle the jackass who tried to attack her on her own terms and it worked out. Let Shepard take care of this her way."

"We let her handle Lord Darius her way." Ashley reminded Xander, "You do recall how that worked out right?"

The Alliance had pulled Shepard in to handle what Admiral Hackett maintained was a simple trade negotiation, Shepard had brought Xander along to as she put it, "keep me from doing something I'll regret having to explain in an After-Action Report."

In that respect he had failed spectacularly. Lord Darius and his men were no more and Shepard had razed the base to the ground for good measure.

"HER way usually consists of a bullet to the brain," The Gunnery Chief snapped, "or threatening someone WITH a bullet to the brain."

"...And as negotiating tactics go, you'll notice it's been damn effective." Xander pointed out.

They watched as Shepard stepped in close. The wind carried not a hint of her whispers, but you could see the moment that Wrex's body shuddered and his gun dropped.

"I'll be damned. Xander's right." Kaidan whispered.

"It happens from time to time, Alenko. You'll get used to it." Xander said, smirking.

"Yeah, like the coming of Halley's Comet." Ashley snickered.

Xander looked at her. "Ah, jokes at my expense. Well, now I know it's love." he sighed.

Kirrahe's plan was simple. A frontal assault on Saren's base that drew away his main force, leaving a small hole through which a small strike team could slip through...hopefully unnoticed.

Xander made his displeasure known right away. "So the plan is for you guys to stand out there, getting mauled by Saren's army, while we stealth our way into the base and hope that all his troops will be so focused on killing you that they ignore the nuclear device we're shoving up their cloaca? That has to be the stupidest idea that I've ever heard IN MY LIFE."

"...And that's saying something." Shepard sniggered.

Kaidan didn't know what was more disturbing; her laughter, or the glare that Xander shot her way.

"I don't know what the joke is, but I don't think I want to know." He sighed.

"If you have another way to get a twenty kiloton jury-rigged explosive past massive static defenses AND an army of fanatic Krogan and Geth, then... Please, human. Feel free to enlighten us." Kirrahe sneered.

"Just because I don't have a better plan doesn't mean there isn't one." Xander snapped back.

"Since it's the best plan we have right now, we go with it." Shepard said, her voice putting an end to Xander's argument with Kirrahe.

Then she turned to the Salarian Captain. "That being said, however, my Tech Sergeant makes a valid point; your plan seems to be a tad high-risk."

"There's always the possibility of failure; neither team might make it, or we both could die. Which is why my next request is especially difficult; I'll need one of your men to help me coordinate the attack."

"You expect me to commit one of MY men to your command." Shepard snorted at Kirrahe's request.

"They would be leading one of the three teams that will hit the facility. Should anything happen to me, they would take operational command of the frontal assault."

"Commander, it really is the most efficient way to make sure all the teams are operating past peak. I volunteer." Kaidan offered.

"Not so fast, L-T." Ashley piped up."The Commander's gonna need you to arm the nuke. I'll take this one."

"With all due respect, Gunnery Chief, it's not your place to decide." Kaidan reminded her.

"Why is it that when someone says '...with all due respect,' they really mean 'kiss my ass'?" Ashley shot back.

"Please. This needs a professional touch. I have operational and logistical experience with small-unit tactics." Harris said.

Shepard shook her head. "Sergeant, I think the Captain would prefer to work with someone who's opinion of his tactical skill wasn't aired infront of his troops, so that opts you out. Gunnery Chief, you're up. You know what I expect from you and I know you won't let me down."

"Understood, skipper."

"Alenko, you're with me and Harris. Between the two of you, any technical hurdles should be easy to handle."

Shepard turned to the rest of the team. "Wrex, Garrus... you're on the shadow team as well, Liara too."

"We'll handle it, Shepard." the rogue Turian nodded.

"Tali, you're with the Salarians. Help them uncouple the drive core. Whatever bang it has now, I want it more powerful by the time we're ready to deploy."

Tali nodded. "Understood, Commander."

"How good is she, Spectre?" Kirrahe asked. like practically every one else in the galaxy Kirrahe saw Quarian and assumed untrustworthy vagrant.

Shepard heard the tone in the Salarian's voice and narrowed her eyes in annoyance "Captain, Tali'Zorah here can craft drive-core parts from what's in your pockets right now. So I'm pretty sure that she can do wonders with your bomb."


	18. Virmire 3

_**Thanks to Reikson for the help and advice and support**_**. **

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_Shepard's Thoughts ...__  
__  
__It was like we'd been preparing for this, for all the months that we'd fought together. The assault went off without a hitch. Xander, Wrex, and Garrus, went in through the basement.__  
__  
__Meanwhile, I took Alenko and Liara to knock on the back door. What we found waiting for us turned out to be disturbing in ways that none of us had ever seen before.__  
__  
__Funny thing was that the biggest challenge, the thing that almost destroyed us, wasn't the fanatical synthetics or the brainwashed troops. The thing that almost broke us was a little thing that was so simple that I missed it until it was too late. After everything we had seen and done. After everything we had been through.__  
__  
__I'd honestly thought that I had the trust of the whole group, that they would follow my lead without question... more the fool I, it would seem. That mistake almost lost me the war right there, costing me the life of the bravest and most honorable soldier that I'd ever known...__  
__  
__  
_

A roar filled the air as a fuel depot went up in flames. Garrus watched through the scope of his sniper rifle as a hulking Geth model, a bipedal design built like a linebacker in armor, reacted to the sound by charging their position. He waited until its glowing eye filled the viewfinder of his rifle scope before gently squeezing the trigger. A modded round slammed into the Geth's eyepiece... another perfect headshot.

He grinned at Wrex, who snorted. "What do you want, an award?" the Krogan sneered.

"Yeah, 'cuz you make kills like that every day... oh, wait. You don't because you can't." Garrus sneered back.

Wrex didn't answer. Instead, he smoothly stepped out from behind his cover and gestured at a group of Geth firing on him. The electric blue of a biotic field suddenly flared into existence, as Wrex's Lift snared four Geth Troopers disrupting their personal gravity. As they floated upward, he hit all three of them dead center with rounds from his shotgun.

He'd turned to make a joke at the Turian when another of the huge Geth models stepped out from behind cover; firing an explosive rocket blast that knocked the old Krogan Battlemaster to the ground.

"What the hell was that!" Xander cried out as he joined them.

"Geth Prime!" Garrus answered.

"...firing a Goddamn rocket at us! When did they start doing that?"

Wrex struggled back to his feet and roared as he threw a Warp at the Geth Prime. Xander watched at the blood red armor cracked and twisted under opposing gravitational fields. The Krogan then brought up his shotgun and fired a single blast into the Geth's body that tore the synthetic beast in half.

"You can keep your sniper rifle, cuttlebone." the old Krogan sneered. "Me, I like it up close and personal."

"Now, now, if you two don't stop all that flirting, people will start to talk." Xander said.

"You took out the fuel depot, then." Garrus guessed.

Xander nodded. "Got a ton of their Recon Drones in the process. Ashley's team should have an easier time of it."

"Nice explosion. Your woman will be pleased." Wrex said.

"Ashley isn't MY WOMAN, Wrex. We humans don't control our females."

Wrex snorted. "As if that much wasn't obvious. Looking at Shepard and Williams, they can take more pain then your males. They carry the children to term and they seem to fight better."

"I've heard they live longer then your males as well." Garrus added, chuckling.

"Well, that might not be true in every male's case." Wrex added, sniggering.

As part of the Noveria ground team, Wrex, Liara, and Shepard, were the only ones who knew of Xander's unique nature. Harris knew that might eventually HAVE to change, but there was still a small and defiant part of him that was determined to keep his immortality a secret for as long as possible. He was determined to hold on to the joy of having people treat him like the normal guy he used to be.

Xander shot the Krogan a warning look, but the old warrior only smirked at him. "She's chosen well, though. You seem like you'd make good breeding stock."

"That's practically a proposal of marriage from a Krogan," Garrus "Williams, had better appreciate the trouble you went to. Last time I checked the point of a diversion is to draw the enemy's attention AWAY from you."

"She's on a diversionary team, Garrus, not a suicide run. If I can make life easier for her and Admiral Ackbar, then I will."

The Turian shook his head, muttering, "Fine, fine. It's time for us to make our entrance anyway." he checked his chronograph, "T'soni and Alenko should be helping Shepard draw their attention. Right... about... now."

Xander nodded and walked over to the door, his omni-tool flaring to life as he hacked the internal components of its lock. The door slid open and the three squad mates trekked down into the sub-cellar as filthy sewage swirled around their feet.

Xander sighed. "Another sewer, looking for another big bad. It's nice to know that some things in my life will never, ever change."

They reached a doorway and another hackable security panel. Xander made short work of the panel and the door slid aside, letting them into a large room with stairs lead upward to a door with a large security console in front of it. Along the railing overlooking their position were several Salarians looked down at them.

"Where'd they come from?" Xander asked.

"Didn't that Captain say he lost several men investigating this place?" Garrus speculated aloud.

Xander shrugged, "I assumed they were dead." he said.

Then the Salarians raised weapons and began shooting at them.

"Dead, no, but switched sides? Definitely!" Wrex snarled, yanking Xander back out of the line of fire.

"You think Shepard knows?" Xander bellowed over the gunfire.

"If she hasn't figured it out by now, then she'll know soon enough!" Garrus snapped back while trying to keep the Salarian's heads down with suppressing fire.

"They're not fighting right!" Wrex shouted. "No tactics, no organization... they smell wrong, too!"

A shot made Xander duck his head. "Less talky, more shootie!" he bellowed.

Garrus aimed his sniper rifle, taking out three of the Salarians in as many seconds. But a fourth jumped to the bottom of the stairs, running wildly toward them.

"It wants you dead! It needs me to kill you!" The Salarian screamed.

Xander pointed his omnitool and the Salarian's gun went quiet. Wrex unleashed a blast of biotic energy and the Salarian was thrown across the room and crashed against the far wall with bone-jarring force.

The STG operative writhed on the floor, murmuring to himself. Xander bent down and listened.

"What does he want?" Garrus asked.

Xander straightened up, a look of shock on his face. "To die. He wants us to kill him."


	19. Virmire 4

_**Thanks to Reikson**_**. **

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Kaidan Alenko hacked his way through a door that lead into a warehouse. They should be two floors above Xander's team and would meet them inside.

The door opened reveal to a Geth Shock Trooper handling a shotgun. A burst of plasma streaked across the narrow space and Kaidan reflexively raised a Barrier but the shot exploded against a force shield before it ever reached him.

He looked around and noticed Liara T'soni standing just behind him, a hand raised and her eyes glowing with power. She had generated the force field.

"Nice, Doc. As Xander is fond of saying; always bet on the blue girl." Shepard smirked.

Kaidan nodded. "Get ready to drop your Barrier, Doctor T'soni." he said, raising his omni-tool, ready to fire an Overload at the Geth.

At his nod, Liara's Barrier shimmered and died as Kaidan made the Geth's shield short out. Shepard brought up her shotgun, hurling the Geth backwards with a fiery blast of incendiary-modded shot.

But several Salarians were now charging them, their guns barking. Shepard fired another blast at a nearby containment pod, which exploded and sent cryogenic gas spewing into the air.

The Salarians stumbled but kept on coming, screeching incoherently as they ran towards them. Liara's arms swept forward, moving like a ballerina as her biotic energies swirled around her. Several of the attacking Salarians were thrown into the air, smacking into walls and floors.

Kaidan felt a little jealous. For humans, biotics were still a raw, new thing, a tool and sometimes a weapon. For Asari, biotic power was an extension of their bodies; a part of the self.

A sweeping hand created a Pull field that snatched a weapon from the hands of its dazed owner.

A sweeping foot created a Lift field or a Throw that tossed enemies around the room like they were toys.

A palm thrust sent a Warp at the few remaining Geth, a violent storm of gravitational power ripping several of them apart.

Freezing others in their place with powerful Stasis fields.

Watching Liara use her abilities was like watching... magic. Or, at least, what Kaidan thought that real magic, if such a thing existed, would look like.

Shepard looked at the Salarians lying on the floor.

"Captain Kirrahe's men. But why are they fighting with the Geth?"

"Brainwashing, maybe? But can you brainwash a Salarian? I thought they were, like, super-smart." Kaidan pondered.

"Intelligence is no protection against mental domination, Lieutenant," Liara  
explained. "One needs only to have a will strong enough to overpower a mind's defenses."

"Can you do it?"

Liara shook her head. "No, my abilities are more combat-oriented."

Kaidan sensed the Asari was holding something back. "...But you've heard of the ability. You've heard of Asari who have that ability?"

"My mother has the ability. Abilities like Dominate will often appear in families with..." She paused, as if embarrassed, "Purebloods... they often retain abilities like Reave as well."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." he speculated.

"Purebloods are prone to certain genetic abnormalities that are considered... shameful. The biotic abilites they possess are often seen as signs of their genetic weakness, a mark of their inferiority."

"Genetic weakness? Inferiority? You've got to be shitting me." Disbelief colored Kaidan's words.

"I am not... shitting... you, Lieutenant." Liara replied flatly. "The Asari place great value in genetic and cultural diversity. Conversely, Asari see pureblood offspring as... promoting weakness and stagnation; they are... embarrassments."

"Doesn't that seem a little... bigoted?" he ventured, not really wanting to tread what was clearly a sensitive subject.

"I assure you, Lieutenant, few Asari would ever discuss things like this openly with an outsider."

"...and yet you seem okay with talking about it. Why?"

"I am a pureblood. I see no shame in what I am and as for how I am treated by my own kind... well, there's a reason that I've spent the last fifty years on isolated worlds studying a dead species."

Shepard was silent. She'd discussed most of this with Liara in private, especially after encountering Benezia on Noveria. To hear Liara talk about it so openly, however, with her voice raw and stripped of emotion... It was sobering to hear Liara speak so openly.

A part of her, that she'd tried to ignore for a long time, began to tug at her insides. That part of her wanted to reach out to the young Asari, to hold her and, if she could, to protect her as well.

Kaidan kept the rest of his thoughts to himself as the three of them moved further into the base. Opening a door, they could look down and saw a series of cages. Shepard could see Salarians sealed in them, murmuring to themselves.

"They're just like the others. They barely know we're here, Commander," Kaidan whispered.

"I'm beginning to wonder if breeding Krogan is all they do here?" T'soni mused.

Shepard looked and saw a doorway. "The entrance is through the next room. I want to check this out."

They moved through a door, hearing gunfire in the distance.

"That sounds like Team Two. Let's get this mystery solved before Xander gets here."

Kaidan listed to the sounds. "Sounds as though they're upstairs from us. How'd they get ahead?"

"We'll ask when we see them," Shepard snapped. "Let's focus on the detention level right now."

They opened a door and Liara gasped. The sight of several Salarians crouched in cages and whispering to themselves was horrifying. Shepard grimaced as she walked past them, ignored by all save for a single Salarian in a cage off to the side.

"Hello, is anyone there?" he asked hesitantly.

"Shepard, Council Spectre."

"A Council Spectre out here? On the fringes of Terminus Space?"

"You're STG, right? We got your call for help. The Council thought that sending me was better than a whole fleet. Your Captain's attacking the front of the base, we're the shadow team."

"Gonto Imnes. I was captured while on recon. If I know the Captain, he'll be planning on blowing the facility."

Shepard nodded. "That's the plan. You know where the breeding pens are?"

"Breeding," Imness snorted. "The Krogan aren't nearly the threat that the indoctrination is."

"I was wondering about that. I've met some of your fellows. They're fighting for Saren now."

"They've been indoctrinated, all of them. I've never seen anything like it. Good men turned into mindless husks."

"How?"

"Most succumbed within a week. Some kind of energy field, I've even detected signs of infrasound. Saren's doing something else with the Krogan. Injections; the substance is some kind of nanotech suspended in a fluidic compound. One hit and a process that normally takes days happens in seconds."

"His genophage cure." Shepard realized.

Imness nodded. "I don't know how it works, but it only takes one injection. And the Asari that I spoke to, she said that once it's in their system, it'll not only affects them but any progeny that they produce."

"Asari? You mean Benezia or someone else?"

Imness shook his head. "Her name's Rana Thanoptis. She's a researcher. Saren keeps her and that human doctor busy upstairs, but she came down here today, let out a bunch of my people, and armed them."

"You mean your fellow soldiers? They've all had this done to them? What could've possessed Saren to do something this despicable?" Liara asked, her voice a mix of fear and disgust.

"I think he's testing it, trying to find a way to control the process or even..."

"...reverse it," Shepard whispered. Then it hit her. "He isn't in control. He must be afraid of relying on it too much."

A door opened at the top and they looked up to see Xander, Wrex, and Garrus crossing the balcony.

"Sorry, boss!" Xander called out. "We got a little ahead, busted up a lab, and killed ourselves a Krogan scientist."

Garrus sighed, "Krogan and scientist... there's two words that I never thought I'd hear together."

"Anyhow," Xander said pointedly. "Wrex got a hold of that genophage cure."

Kaidan saw Shepard's lips curl in anger. "Did he take it?" she demanded.

"Nah, he wanted to see how it works first. Maybe figure out how to make more of it." Garrus rumbled.

"Get down here, NOW!" she snarled.

The three jogged back through the lab and came though the door. Shepard reached out and grabbed Wrex, force-marching him bodily across the floor and steering him to look at the Salarians.

"This is what your damn cure does. This is what you become. He injected that garbage into them and he did the same to your people, Wrex. It turns them into these mindless lumps!"

Wrex looked at the Salarians and the way they were staring at the open door of their cell and how they didn't react at all.

"They're barely alive, Wrex," she hissed. "They'd let varren gnaw off their limbs if Saren told them to ignore it. So is that what you want for them? Is this all that you think the Krogan are worth?"

"I'd rather be dead then live like that." Wrex muttered.

Shepard held out her hand. "Give it to me, then," she ordered.

Wrex dropped the vial, glowing with a sinister blue light, into her hand. She tossed the vial into the air, drew her pistol, and shattered the fragile tube with a single shot.

"I get that you want to free your people, Wrex. But this... this isn't freedom. It's the worst kind of slavery. And if this is what the Krogan have to become, they'd be better off dead."

They looked at each other a moment before Shepard nodded decisively and turned to Xander.

"Sergeant, if you could let Mister Imness out of his cell? I'm sure that he'd like to get as far away from this facility as possible before it's a smoking crater."

Xander opened Imness's cell and watched the Salarian as he stepped out and walked past the cell with his fellow soldiers. The immortal wondered if the shudder that went through Imness was from weakness or the pain of seeing what had happened to his fellow soldiers.

"Don't look back and hope to avoid the blast, huh? A better chance then I had before you showed up. Good luck, human. I think you'll need it."

Kaidan watched the other Salarians sadly. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do for them?"

"Leaving them to die in the blast seems cruel," Liara said. "But I suppose it can't be helped."

Xander thought about the months that he'd spent as slave and personal servant to Dracula. Finally, he said, "I'd rather be dead than be left like this."

"Wrex?" Shepard's voice was curt, but her meaning abundantly clear.

Wrex shuddered, still looking at the Salarians with a haunted look on his face. Finally, he said, "Make it quick, Shepard. They're warriors, and once fought like warriors. They deserve to die like warriors as well."

"Agreed." Shepard nodded, taking her pistol in hand.

Kaidan looked at his commander, shocked. "Ma'am, are you sure about this? I mean, just mowing them down, that just seems a little..."

"...no, Lieutenant, it's a lot." she snapped as she fired two rounds into each of the brainwashed Salarians. "You'd honestly leave a fellow soldier to suffer like this? Just so your hands stay clean?" she asked him, her voice cold.

"I took an oath, ma'am. I... I have to live with my conscience."

"...and what happens when your oath and your duty conflict with your conscience? What if the life of your squad depends on you putting your conscience aside for the good of the mission?"

"Thankfully, that hasn't happened."

"Yet, you mean. And that happened to me, Kaidan, and there are soldiers alive today because I did the right thing for them. Not for my conscience, for the people under my command who depended on me for leadership. If I have any regrets about Torfan, it's that I waited too long to do what was necessary."

Then she got in Kaidan's face, his hardsuit in her grip, her lips curled into a snarl.

"I became the Butcher of Torfan by choice, Alenko. But I also did it out of necessity. One day, you'll have to decide what's more important; your clean conscience or your duty. I hope, for the sake of the men depending on you for leadership, that you do the right thing."

Kaidan paled. "Ma'am, I never meant to imply..."

"...Damn right, you did." Shepard hissed. "When you're in command, you get to make that judgment call. But until then, you follow my lead. Is that in any way unclear Lieutenant?"

Then she turned to the rest of the squad. "We're done here, people. Move out."


	20. Virmire 5

**Thanks to Reikson for the awesome ideas and the great bata work and to my many kind reviewers - your support has made this a hell of a lot easier to do this. Thank you All :-)** _

The group passed through a destroyed chamber that still reeked of the faint traces of ammonia that marked it as a lab. Xander looked back and noticed Wrex staring at a dead Krogan. The scientist who'd been running the lab. A low rumbling snarl built up in the old Krogan's throat.

"You okay, Big Guy?" Xander asked the old mercenary quietly.

"The Council made us slaves once." Wrex sneered bitterly. "We wiped out the Rachni for them and they thanked us by neutering us all. Now this scum would've make us slaves again. And to a Turian, of all things. He's not even worth feeding to a nathak."

The old Battlemaster paused, looking at the his fellow Krogan before spitting on the corpse in disgust.

"Wrex, can it!" Shepard snapped. "You're with Harris and Alenko on point! I want to make sure every trace of Saren's so-called cure is gone."

The old Krogan nodded as Xander and Kaidan went ahead, moving down a narrow walkway that looked like a bridge. Idly, Xander noticed a second bridge off to the side.

The sound of gunfire echoed, off in the distance.

"Sounds like Ash and the Captain are giving them what for." Xander commented, mostly to fill the air. Alenko's silence was creeping him out.

"I can't believe she picked you, of all people." Kaidan snapped.

"Ashley or Shepard?" Xander sighed.

"What, you think I'm some lovesick teenager?" Kaidan sneered. "Of course, I mean Shepard. Or have you been playing moral compass for any other Council Spectres?"

"Ah. I'd wondered where that eight-hundred pound gorilla had gotten off to." Xander sighed.

"See that? Right there! That's my point!" Kaidan snapped back. "I get using humor as a coping mechanism, but you act like the world exists as a nonstop set-up for your jokes."

"Oh, and you'd prefer that I took life seriously and sit around in righteous moral judgment of someone who's saved my life more then a few times?" Xander sneered back.

"You think she was right to kill those Salarians? You can't think she was right!" the biotic snarled.

"Of course I think it was right! I've been a slave... well, it was a long time ago and it doesn't matter anymore. The point is, I've seen what being a slave does to people, and I wouldn't leave my worst enemy like that."

"So just mow them down, a quick little double tap and away we go, that's better? How can you just rationalize that away?"

"I trust her, Kaidan. It's not much more complicated then that. She's earned my trust. We're through the looking glass here. Right, wrong... stuff like that gets fuzzy on the level that we're now playing on. So trust is all that we can rely on. And I trust her, Kaidan. "

"I've seen what happens when you start looking the other way, Xander. It's not pretty. It usually doesn't end well for the people depending on-"

Their conversation was interrupted as they reached the far side of the walkway. Kaidan was in full rant as Geth Recon Drones flew at them, firing phasic rounds at blitzkrieg speeds.

"Pull back, Goddamnit!" Xander bellowed. But even as he moved to sprint away, giant servos whined as the first bridge swung away leaving the pathway behind them a yawning chasm. Xander and Kaidan stumbled onto the second bridge as it slid into place, while Wrex fell against a doorway behind them.

The rest of the squad was cut off from all three of them. Kaidan could see Garrus prodding the bridge controls on their side of the chasm. A high machine whining began and Kaidan could feel the bridge he was standing on moving.

It took a few moments for him to realize the bridges were not coming together. As the first one slid back into place, the second bridge lowered itself, leaving Wrex trapped next to the door, and both Kaidan and Xander trapped out in the open.

"Oh, isn't that nice!" Xander snarled. "Moving bridges and, of course, when one is in position, the other isn't! Which means that we're now sitting ducks out here!"

"...And here's me thinking the slaughterhouse was out front with Ash and Salarians!" Kaidan yelled back as the two men fired on the swiftly moving Drones.

"Get to the other side of the bridge!" Xander bellowed.

"What? Have you lost your mind?" Kaidan roared back.

"We're in a crap position! We either stay here in the open and let the Drones gun us down, or move down the bridge to the only cover we've got! That alcove!"

Kaidan looked ahead and saw a trio of Krogan firing wildly in their direction. "Krogan incoming!" he yelled. "Looks like they're indoctrinated!"

"We gonna take the Krogan or the Geth?" Xander bellowed back.

"Krogan!" Kaidan decided on the fly. "The Drones can actually hit us!"

So the two of them made a break for the alcove, dodging Geth weapons fire as they ran and continued shooting. Wrex could see across the vast space, while Shepard and the rest of the team hunkered down to lay a hail of suppressing fire on all the Drones they could see.

Now under assault from above and below, the Drones split up. Several of them broke off from trying to kill Xander and Kaidan in order to engage Shepard's team.

Wrex found himself under assault from two of the Recon Drones at once. He fired his oversized shotgun at the one of the drones firing at him, sending it spinning away to crash somewhere in a fiery mess.

The other Drone weaved through the air, its shots falling around Wrex like a deadly rainstorm. Cursing, the old Krogan broke cover and leapt into the air, grabbing onto the remaining drone. The thing was unprepared for the bold tactic and his greater weight, and its overstressed hover engines whined as he rode it down to the second bridge.

Jumping off of the Drone, he twisted in midair so that he could continue firing his pistol at the hovering machine. He watched with some satisfaction as the thing exploded, just before he landed hard on the bridge, back first, and began cursing.

Meanwhile, a single Drone was keeping up the steady rain of rocket fire on Kaidan and Xander.

"What the hell are those things?" Kaidan yelled.

"I don't know!" Xander yelled back, reflexively ducking as a rocket streaked past them and exploded behind them. "But they've got a Hell of a bang for their buck!"

Kaidan used biotic punches to knock the Krogan down to the ground as they passed, allowing them to slip into the dubious cover of the alcove.

Meanwhile, Wrex was too far away to make effective use of his Shotgun, and was not prepared to expose himself to the deadly Rocket Drone. So he began firing pistol rounds at the other Krogan menacing Xander and Kaidan, allowing the two of them to deal with the last Drone.

"I got this." Xander snapped and channeled an Overload at the Drone, making its shield shimmer and die.

That was when Kaidan first noticed it; a smaller, spherical drone buzzing around the larger Rocket Drone. "Damn it! Repair drones!" the biotic cursed. "God does not like us today!" He tried targeting the thing, but it seemed to almost sense when it was being threatened. It would swoop back and forth, in and out of the cover provided by the larger Rocket Drone's protective shielding.

"Now you see WHY I've had to develop a sense of humor about my life?" Xander roared at him. "I'd go crazy otherwise!"

Whenever they tagged the Rocket Drone, the smaller one would fire some kind of beam at its larger comrade, regenerating its shields and armor and letting it start attacking again.

"Double team!" Xander snapped. "I break cover and draw the Rocket Drone's fire, and you take out the Repair Drone!"

"No, we should stick to cover! It can't get at us that well while we stay here!"  
Xander nodded. "Fine, L-T, we'll try it your way! But first..." and he broke from cover, running as fast as he could. The Rocket Drone swiveled in the air and went after him, firing rockets at his heels.

Kaidan cursed as he began running after them, firing shots at the Repair Drone and sending it falling to the rocky reefs far below.

Xander saw another Krogan warrior right in front of him. The walking tank snarled wordlessly in rage as it barreled toward him in full Charge. He dropped to the ground, sliding between the Krogan's pumping legs just as the Drone unleashed another rocket attack. The rocket blew the Krogan off its feet and hurled it over the railing.

Xander leaned back, priming his omni-tool again. This time, the Overload charge slammed into the Rocket Drone, dropping its shields enough for Kaidan to hit it with an EM Pulse. The drone fell, exploding as it disappeared into the watery depths.

Xander lay on his back, panting heavily. "Nice, L-T! Don't you love it when a plan comes together?"

"That was reckless, foolhardy, and... just about the ballsiest thing I've ever seen." Kaidan bent down to help Xander up and was thus caught off-balance when a huge Krogan barreled into him and sent both of them over the railing.

"Kaidan!" Xander cried out as he got to the railing and saw the biotic dangling from the edge of the railing, with the Krogan grabbing his feet.

Kaidan's grip on the railing slipped, and Xander reached out and grabbed his arms to hold him in place. But the sudden jerk of his stop dislodged the Krogan and sent it plummeting to the reefs below. Xander tried to pull Kaidan up, but was hit from behind and nearly let him fall again.

The attacking Krogan, who'd been blasted off the bridge by the Geth Drone only seconds earlier, had survived his close encounter with a rocket and pulled his still smoldering body back onto the bridge to batter at Xander with his shotgun stock.

If Xander was the count-your-blessings type, he might've considered it lucky the Krogan was so maddened by its pain that it seemed determined to club him to death with the shotgun, as opposed to shooting him. Xander tried kicking back, but the brainwashed Krogan was single-minded.

"Let go of my hand!" Kaiden yelled up at him.

"Screw that! I'm not dropping you to save my own ass!"

"I don't want you to drop me, you idiot! I need a hand free! Biotic here, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Xander replied sheepishly.

Xander freed one of Kaidan's hands, and the biotic balled up his fist and threw a ball of biotic power that sent the Krogan flying into the air, off the bridge, and into the waters below.

Finally unhindered, Xander yanked Alenko back up onto the bridge.

"When you tell people about this..." Xander panted, on his hands and knees. "...and you will, make no mistake about that... could you leave out the part where I forgot you're a biotic? That's mildly embarrassing."

Kaidan looked at him. "You kidding me? I'm totally going to tell them that you were screaming like a little girl."

"I don't scream like a girl! My screaming's very butch!" Xander squawked.

They stared at each before they both broke into laughter.

"If I didn't know better..." Wrex rumbled as he walked up to them. "I would say that SOMEONE was using humor as a coping mechanism for the stress of his near-death experience."

"What about YOUR near-death experience?" Xander demanded. "Last I saw, you were in bad cover and ready to get picked off!"

Wrex shrugged. "As my first Battlemaster taught me; when you have no defense, attack."

"What about you, Harris?" Kaidan asked. "What possessed you to run out into enemy fire like that?"

Xander shrugged. "I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Why do I get the impression you use THAT excuse a lot?" Kaidan groaned.

Xander shrugged as Wrex looked over at the distant second bridge and the rest of their squadmates. "How are we going to get the bridge back up to the other platform?"

"Easy-peasy," Xander pointed. "That console over there should do the trick. The real problem's that Shepard's going to be waiting for us, and I don't think she'll be happy that we got into a whole firefight and didn't invite her. You know how she hates being left out of the action."

Kaidan looked up and saw Shepard staring down on them. He could feel her stare, even from this distance. "No offense, Xander, but she likes you better. So I'm totally blaming this on you."

"Not if I talk to her first, you won't." Xander vowed.

next up: **When Old Machines and Old Ones meet - sparks fly. Saren shows he's smarter then the average Geth and Team Normandy loses one of its own.****  
**


	21. Virmire 6

**AN - Thanks to Reikson as always, especially as these were some long chapters but I am happy with how they turned out. Hope you all share my enthusiasm - thanks to the all for the continued support and I'd also like to take this oppertunity to thank the gang upkeeping Mass Effect Wiki. I'm guessing all of the decent fics and half of the sucky ones owe their existance to the people who faithfully upkeep and maintain this treasure trove of Mass Effect Knowledge**

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Shepard's Thoughts...

***  
_  
__Harris and Alenko's sudden attack of esprit de corps was heartwarming, but not the biggest thing on my mind.__  
__  
__Not for long, anyway. At various points on this trip, various people had warned me that my immortal friend was not the only weird and unique thing that I'd encounter on this trip.__  
__  
__I'd listened, but not really understood.__  
__  
__I'd wondered what could be stranger then a soldier who couldn't die in battle?__  
__  
__Answer ... How about a God who'd been fighting our real enemy since long before man took his first steps?_

***

Rana Thanoptis cowered on the floor under her desk. Illyria, still disguised as Fred, seemed uninterested in the fighting outside.

It was limiting being Fred, even after all these years, but Winifred Burkle still served a purpose. She could still go places that Illyria would never be welcomed in. At least, not without annoying levels of violence.

"We should've left. We could've run." Rana whimpered. Fear and misery had her hugging her legs.

Illyria sighed. She hoped that Rana would not start crying again. The noise was bothersome.

As a pet, the Asari was merely adequate. She had none of Spike's spirit, or his humor. And the diminished Old One seriously doubted that Thanoptis could even take a punch without whining like a child.

"We have little to fear from men with guns," Illyria said dryly as she sniffed the air. "Besides, I smell something... familiar..." she trailed off as a memory twinged in her mind.

"Familiar or not," Rana complained. "...you're a God, Mistress. You don't have to be... afraid, like the rest of us. We can die."

"Believe me when I say that even Gods can die." Illyria said coldly. "I've seen it happen, and I've been the cause of it."

Illyria walked over to a weapons locker.

"If you'd like, I can give you the code, Mistress. It's..."

"No need," Illyria snapped as she yanked the door right off its hinges. She then threw the twisted mass of the door on the ground and pulled out a pistol, tossing it to the frightened Asari.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Rana cried.

"If there is violence, you will be able to defend yourself. Do you feel better now?"

"I'd feel better if we could just leave. Please, Mistress."

"We will leave soon. I have to speak with someone about the future. Now, do you have the code to the Turian's private lab?"

Rana nodded, shoving the data pad at the Goddess.

"Then put the weapon away. It will cause trouble when those who hunt him arrive and see you armed." Illyria snapped.

Rana looked fearful and only lowered her gun, not putting it away. That's why the gun was in her hands when Shepard's squad burst in the door.

Shepard's weapon came up without hesitation. "Drop the weapon!" she snarled, firing a shot over Rana's head. "Drop it now!"

Rana screamed and cringed, firing by accident. Her bullet whizzed by Xander's shoulder, causing him to squawk in startled protest. Wrex simply leveled his shotgun and fired back, out of instinct.

Illyria's eyes flared a bright blue, and the shell that the galaxy knew as Winifred Burkle vanished, allowing Illyria the God-King of the Primordium to walk among pitiful mortals once more.

For Xander, the world seemed to slow to a crawl and he gasped in recognition.

It was Illyria as he'd seen her during that last battle. Clad in that strange red leather bodysuit, fury etched on her face. She'd joined the last survivors for that final stage of the Brawl-For-It-All, wanting revenge for the death of Spike and that weird Stygian beast that she'd inexplicably dubbed Pancakes.

Illyria marched over to Rana, and pulled her out of the path of Wrex's now-slow moving gunfire.

"Fred- I mean, Illyria..." Xander found himself stumbling over the confused relationship between the sweet girl he'd met once and the cold God-Being she'd become, thanks to Wolfram and Hart's treachery.

"What the Hell... what are YOU doing here?" he finally asked.

Illyria narrowed her eyes, looking at Xander. "You. The one who thinks that he is funnier than he actually is. Spike often spoke of copulating with your betrothed. The tale of your cuckolding brought him great amusement. Why are you here?"

"We're looking for Saren. Are you... are you working for him?"

Illyria shuddered involuntarily, sneering at herself for doing so. "...the girl... Winifred... she dreamed of exploring new worlds, seeing what lay beneath alien stars. When mankind moved out into the galaxy, it amused me to indulge her wish."

"You're exploring the galaxy to make Fred happy... she's still in there?"

"Sergeant, who is this and why is she here?" Shepard snarled, her gun still trained on Illyria.

"Her name is... Illyria. Illyria the Merciless, Illyria the God-King... honestly, Boss, Illyria's got titles coming out the wazoo."

Illyria nodded. "Saren hired Rana and I to investigate the indoctrination process, to find him a means of protecting himself. Of course, there is no real defense. For normal people, anyway."

"You were helping him?" Liara asked

"It wasn't as if we had many options," Rana snapped. "Our first test subject was the man I replaced. Now I just want to get out of here before he dissects my brain."

"Rana, I shall accompany them to Saren's private lab. You will remain here with the others."

"But, Mistress, I was..."

Illyria's eyes suddenly flared with electric blue energy. "Do as I say," she hissed, her voice soft and menacing.

As the Asari researcher squeaked and nodded, Illyria spun around and marched to the elevator. "Are you coming or not?" she snapped.

"Can we trust her?" Shepard whispered.

"She's never tried to kill ME, that's a huge plus in the win column as far as I'm concerned." Xander replied.

Shepard snorted. "By that standard, Saren's harmless. Someday we'll have to discuss your tactical threat-assessment scale." Then she sighed. "Alenko, Garrus, Wrex... stay here and hold this room. And keep Miss Thanoptis out of trouble."

The three of them did not answer, gaping at the leather clad humanoid who could seemingly move faster then weapons fire and seemed to know Xander.

"How did she do that thing where she... she was there one second, then she was..." Garrus sputtered his confusion plain.

Xander sighed. "Short answer? She can manipulate time," he explained as he followed Shepard into the elevator. "Actually, she can do a lot of really freaky stuff. I'd love to stay and explain the whole backstory, but she has zero impulse control, and even less patience."

The doors closed on the group. Garrus turned to Rana. "All right, maybe you can explain."

Rana nodded. "She's an anthropomorphic manifestation of one of Earth's primordial deity figures."

Garrus sighed. "A little less complicated, please?"

"Some of Earth's gods are corporeal beings. That woman was infused with the essence of one such figure about two hundred years ago and has been the host for that god even since."

"So some mad woman tells you she's God and you believed her?" Kaiden laughed.

"As a matter of fact... no, I didn't. At first, I thought she was crazy. Then I watched her rip apart a bunch of Krogan hopped up on Ryncol and battle-rage."

"Combat training and biotics could explain-" Kaidan groped for an alternate explanation.

Rana snorted. "I'm not a first-year student, I'm a damn scientist. Obviously, I base my statements on hard, empirical data."

"Which would be?" Kaiden asked.

"I've personally watched her manipulate time. Freezing it, running it backwards and forwards in localized areas... trust me, biotics and technology can account for a hell of a lot of things that I've seen that woman do. But making an entire room of hungry scientists freeze in place? Just so that we can raid the buffet table unmolested? If she isn't a god, then she's something powerful enough to pass the muster, for my use."

"Okay..." Kaidan butted in, massaging his head. "Just so that my headache can reach ridiculous proportions... you're telling me that she defeated a bunch of amped-up Krogan singlehandedly, and then raided the buffet table... on a whim?"

"The funny thing is that she doesn't need to eat, she rarely sleeps, and I get the impression that she maintains her human appearance out of... well, I guess... sentiment... would be the right word." Rana said, as she began pacing back and forth.

"If it weren't for her, I might've been killed by the wandering Geth."

"The Geth attacked you?"

"Once. She picked one up and used its body to reduce the others to scrap."

"Excuse me?" Garrus asked.

"I've seen her do some pretty vicious things ever since I met her... I've chosen not to ask too many questions anymore." She shuddered, clearly in the grip of some ugly memories. Finally she shook her head vigorously, trying to shake herself free of the memory in question.

"But Saren... does he know about her?" Wrex asked.

Rana shook her head. "Saren thinks she's just an extremely eccentric scientist. She does the work he asks of her and doesn't bother him with details or questions, so he hasn't ever had need to look beyond her disguise."

"A goddess? Really?" the old Krogan mumbled in wonder.

"I'm not sure what she is, exactly... but if she wants to say that she's a goddess, then I'll go with that until you can find me a rational explanation for the things that I've see her do."

"What about that whole thing of calling you pet? What's that about?" Kaidan asked.

Rana sighed, rubbing the skin folds at the top of her head. "She seems to crave social interaction, but she still has trouble relating to people outside of whatever radically-defined power dynamic that she's used to. And... well, she takes care of me. She protects me, and I follow her everywhere and do what she tells me to do... if she wants to call me Pet, I'll go with it as long as I'm still breathing at the end of the day."

"But that just seems impossible." Garrus sighed.

Wrex snorted, thinking of Xander Harris and the impossibility of the Tech Sergeant's existence. "Possible, impossible... both of you might want to broaden your horizons a little." he rumbled thoughtfully.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Saren watched the monitors as they signaled that his private lab had been breached. He turned to the Geth scurrying around the room.

"Faster, all of you!" he roared at them. "Blast your synthetic hides, faster! Sovereign must not be delayed!"

The Geth chattered and moved faster with the preparations for his departure. He decided he was making all of this far too easy for Shepard. It was time to remind the human that she wasn't the only one who could command the loyalty of sacrificial pawns.

"Dahlia." He called to the Asari standing behind him.

A blue hand slid possessively over his shoulder. Unlike many others, Saren held no great fascination for Asari. But the young Dantius sister didn't need to know that.

"So..." Dahlia cooed sensuously in his ear. "Finally realized that you can't rely on religious fanatics and brainless Krogan? If you want the job done right, then you have to send the best."

"I sent Benezia." Saren pointed out dryly.

"And look where that got you." she purred condescendingly. "You need me. Me, not that doddering old fool."

The Turian sneered at her. "Benezia had her uses and she tended to draw a little less attention then a known slaver."

"I didn't hear you complaining when my slaver ring brought you all those subjects for your little experiments." she snapped.

"...And I didn't hear you complain when my people got you off Sharjila before your sister could have you killed." Saren shot back.

"I didn't think the bitch had it in her to be THAT ruthless. If I didn't love to see Nassana squirm so very much, I'd have returned the favor." Dahlia hissed.

"Then, now is your chance to show me that my efforts were not wasted." Saren sneered back.

The Turian brought up a scan of the facility. "Shepard's Shadow team will be making a run for the AA guns and their power generator here." He pointed on the map.

"Give me some of your Drones for air support and I'll have them flank Shepard's team. They can take the Spectre down."

"Dahlia, have you never heard the stories of Torfan? Shepard is a trained Alliance Marine, an N7 operative, AND she absolutely HATES slavers with a passion. If you underestimate her, she'll turn your people into varren feed."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"Your people will hang back while the Geth and Krogan lure her into a prepared killzone."

"What's your plan? What's Shepard after?"

"She's making for the reservoir near the Krogan breeding trenches. That's the only place where she can land that ship of hers. Your people will wait in concealment there. Wait until the Normandy is on the ground, then spring your trap."

"I'll handle it."

"This is your chance, Dahlia. The team that I dispatched to retrieve T'soni failed me. Shiala failed me by giving Shepard the Prothean Cipher. Even Benezia failed me."

"I'm smarter then they are, and better. Shepard won't live past the day."

"I might even give you the Spectre's ship as a reward. If the rumors about its abilities are true, I think you'd find it useful."

"A ship like that, I'd have enough power to challenge Aria T'loak herself. Then we'll see who the Pirate Queen of the Terminus Systems really is."

Saren let the Asari entertain her delusions of grandeur. Truth be told, the rogue Spectre doubted that Dahlia would last even five minutes in a fight against Shepard. But those five minutes would keep Shepard busy. Dahlia's only purpose, other then taking as many of Shepard's people as she could before her inevitable death, was to buy him more time.

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

The elevator rattled as it passed through the facility. Shepard glared at Illyria every so often, but had apparently decided to file the Old One away as part of a growing list of things that weren't nearly as important to her as finding and killing Saren.

Liara was also fascinated by the Old One, finally leaning over to her while clearing her throat nervously.

"So... Miss... Illyria." she started. "You are... really... a goddess? An actual living, breathing deity?"

"I do not breathe, as you put it, but... yes, I am." Illyria's face screwed up in frustration. "Or... I was... a god."

"Well, god might be a tad dramatic," Xander muttered. "Truth be told, the Old Ones were just really, really powerful..." he quickly felt Illyria's harsh stare burring into him.

"Never mind me," he said dryly. "She was totally a goddess."

Illyria nodded, with arrogant satisfaction.

"A goddess who spent over a bazillion years locked in a box at the bottom of a deep-ass well," Xander added, in a loud whisper.. "...but, hey. Splitting hairs."

"You will forgive my skepticism, but what little I know of Earth history makes little mention of their deity figures being anything more then metaphors and allegorical story icons. And there are no records of anyone called Illyria." Liara said softly.

"My empire was lost and forgotten, due to treachery and infighting amongst the others of my kind. I, who once commanded thousands, reduced to a few pitiful minions. And then, the world was allowed to forget about us after the war and the few of my brethren who didn't flee were sealed away two hundred years ago."

Shepard snorted. "You want me to believe that mankind just forgot that there was a war? With gods and goddesses running around?"

"Your people did not JUST forget," Illyria snapped. "You all chose to forget, and he and his kind let you." she pointed at Xander.

Xander simply raised his hands in surrender. "Don't look at me, boss lady," he drawled. "Not my call."

"Then who makes that kind of call?" Shepard demanded.

"There was no conspiracy, no secret cabal." Xander said dryly. "It wasn't like anyone waved their hands and made the world forget. It's just the way the world works. When bad things happen that people can't or don't want to deal with, they allow themselves to forget. Enough people do the same, and suddenly nobody remembers that Sunnydale used to be a small town with an alarmingly high murder rate before it was a lake."

Shepard recalled him making that mistake when they'd first met. She'd dismissed it at the time, as an unimportant mistake on his part. Of course, she didn't know then what she knew now about Xander Harris.

"Nobody but you," Shepard said, slowly understanding. "...and you remember, because you used to live there. Whatever happened to it is connected to the reason why you're... what you are now."

Xander shrugged. Shepard hadn't gotten it right, but he wasn't about to begrudge her jumping to that conclusion.

Liara was still disturbed by Xander's words. "But the past is important. History is important. The things this woman has seen, the stories she could tell... shouldn't they be preserved?"

Xander snorted. "You look at Illyria and see proof of the wonderful and rich hidden history of Earth. I look at her and see living proof of what happens when people, with no regard for life, suddenly decide they want power and will do anything to get it. Make no mistake, Doc. A good woman had to die so that Illyria could live. Winifred Burkle, the real girl who used to live in that body... she was smart and funny. She was a good person who deserved a hell of a lot more than to wind up as little more than a... goddamn photograph."

"Not everyone's like that, Xander." Liara chided. "Surely, you can't think that Shepard and I are like that."

"You and boss lady are exceptions to a rule that I've had drilled into my head for a long, long time. And don't call me Shirley."

Shepard sniggered as Liara rolled her eyes. "I assume this is more of your humor?" she sighed.

Xander sighed. Leslie Nielsen was legendary, but some people didn't properly appreciate the classics anymore.

"Look, Doc. Saren found an ancient dreadnought," Xander decided on another tack to make his point with Liara. "But does he try and help people with it? No, not him. He saw a path to power and he took it. And all of us might pay the price for it."

Shepard sighed. "Liara, I know it's crappy to hear this, but I agree with him. Look at Kaidan. His life was almost ruined because somebody somewhere decided that humanity gaining greater biotic power was worth screwing up a child's entire life. You saw what Illyria could do. How far do you think the Asari would go to gain control over abilities like that? Because I don't even want to think about how far I KNOW the Alliance would go to exploit powers like hers for their own use."

"Goddess forgive me, but you're right. I know you're right. But it just seems so wrong to hide secrets of this magnitude from the rest of the galaxy."

"Galaxy can be an ugly place, Doc," Shepard sighed. "If I could, I'd protect you from things like this. Xander's used his gifts to make the galaxy a better place. Imagine what someone like Saren would do if he couldn't be killed. If he was ageless and immortal."

"Your insight into the Turian does you credit." Illyria sneered as she strode out of the elevator and into the main lab.

The group followed after her and found themselves instantly transfixed by the room's only notable decoration.

"Is that... a Prothean beacon?" Liara asked aloud, reverence in her voice. "Goddess, look at it the detail. This is fifty thousand years old, and in perfect working condition."

"Hey, Doc, you cart this into Serrice U, and I'll bet all those tightasses who laughed at your theories would eat their hearts out to see something like this." Xander mused aloud.

"I assure you, Xander, that there are no cannibals on the Serrice University executive board. "

"Doc, I meant-"

"I know what you meant, I'm attempting to be humorous." She grinned impishly at him.

"Her style could use some work, but I give her points for effort and execution." Shepard added, smirking.

"Yeah, I think the judge might be a little biased." Xander riposted dryly.

Liara ran her hands lovingly over the object's surface. "What's remarkable is how well preserved this is. Something like this should be in a museum."

"Sorry, Doc," Shepard nodded sympathetically. "I'd like to indulge you, but I doubt Saren's going to let us just walk away with it. Even if we could cart it out of here."

Illyria snorted dismissively. "Yes. Most impressive for the Prothean equivalent of a telepathic text message."

Shepard ignored the Old One as she stepped forward, interfacing with the beacon's simple controls. She was suddenly grabbed by a strong force, just like on Eden Prime. And just like before, she felt her body go rigid as her mind opened up and let the universe rush in.

Xander watched. He'd only heard about this secondhand from both Kaidan and Ashley, so seeing it firsthand it was bizarre.

When the beacon finally released Shepard, she collapsed to the ground. Liara rushed to her side, concern written across the young Asari's face.

"Shepard, please let me help you." she begged. With a nod, Shepard relaxed into the Asari's hands.

"Calm breaths, Commander. Go to a place of peace, a place of serenity," she intoned, just as her eyes went black. "Embrace eternity!"

Liara stood on a hundred worlds, looking up into the skies of each of them and seeing dark shapes filling the sky. They resembled giant metallic squid, with huge tentacles reaching down towards the ground. From the ends of each tentacle were destructive beams of light and power that speared downwards, leveling whole buildings in a single blast. And in the midst of this horror, she could see Shepard staring upwards.

No, not Shepard, but it wore her face.

Shepard was seeing what this being had seen, and Liara was perceiving the vision as it was being directed by the Commander. There was no doubt that the Shepard in the real world was only seeing disjointed images flashing before her eyes.

What looked like Shepard, but was not, closed her eyes and the scene shifted. Giant worm-like beings, almost like thresher maws but with long tentacles and a sinister intellect, glared down at the two of them.

"Why should we protect you?" one such figure rumbled. "These old machines are of no threat to us. Begone."

"The Conduit! We would give you the means to cross the stars!" Shepard cried out.

The other huge beasts turned to the one that had first spoken. "Yes, brother, just what you've always needed; the means to flee!" it proclaimed grandly.

Liara desperately swallowed the bile that had risen to her mouth unbidden. Everything about these figures just screamed that something was... wrong, with them.

"Flee to the stars!" the creature continued. "Illyria fell easily enough! Now it is time for you to run and hide from our rebellion!"

The two turned to regard each other, hostility emanating from them in waves like heat.

"I fear nothing, brother." the first figure snarled. "If these old machines come, they will fall before me."

"Only if I deign to leave you any to kill." the second figure sneered. "Perhaps I shall slay them all and take their power for my own."

Shepard sank to her knees, unable to tear her eyes away from the vision. "Slavery or death..." she whispered brokenly. "Is this the only way?"

"The Conduit, please show me the Conduit." Liara pleaded and Shepard nodded.

Suddenly they stood under an alien sky, where the stars winked and seethed in the sky's inky darkness.

"What is this?" Liara asked aloud.

"An empire dying." Shepard replied. Her voice was flat, distant. "Each light is a Prothean world being snuffed out, subjugated, or completely annihilated. Our empire is lost. But if the Protheans must die, then we will strike one last, desperate blow in our death. If any hope remains, it is here on Ilos; the Conduit. If we cannot have salvation, then we shall have our revenge. The Conduit is the key."

There was a flash and Liara found herself back in her body as she gasped. "It's Ilos. The Conduit is on Ilos! That's why Saren needed to find the Mu Relay! That is the only way to reach the star system that has Ilos!"

"What else did you see, Doc?" Xander asked.

"There were two messages layered over each other. Both about the Reapers. One was a message from Ilos, informing anyone still listening to the system, about the Conduit. The second message was from Protheans on Earth, who traveled there in search of aid from the Old Ones. All that were left of them after they betrayed Illyria, at any rate..." Liara reported.

"The Protheans begged those left behind for aid?" Illyria sneered.

"They offered themselves in servitude to those Old Ones left after your defeat and imprisonment." Liara explained.

"Those fools would doubtlessly have no use for Mass Relay technology," the ancient God-King mused.

"Yeah, why find new planets to live on? Especially when you could kill everyone that opposed you and take the planet Earth for your own? If you're ruthless enough." Xander sneered.

You were actually alive to see the Reapers sweep through the galaxy?" Liara asked.

"You've never told them the tale?" Illyria asked. "Amazing. Little wonder that they are so unprepared for what is to come."

"It's been a few decades since I had to give the speech last time, sue me." Xander said dryly. "But, please. Feel free to take it away."

"Your world, your galaxy..." Illyria began. "They are all older then you can possibly imagine. That age saw the appearance of powerful beings living in it. Some, even as powerful as I."

Illyria if fondly recalling something other then the absolute hell Xander knew that period of history to be, "Once, we Old Ones fought for dominance and power." The Old One continued, "Before us, there were the Eternals and their endless games of death and chance."

"And before them... who came before them?"

"Some whisper that once, long ago, Lords of Time and Space held the shadows at bay before they were defeated and destroyed by one of their own as punishment for their arrogance. But always, just at the fringes and lurking in the shadows... there were the Old Machines; what you call Reapers."

"**You are not Saren.**" A deep voice echoed through the chamber. Looking up, the group noticed a hologram.

Shepard startled, this was what she had seen in the visions from the beacon.

To Xander, it looked like an armored cuttlefish and took up most of the room.

As they ran up the walkways to the image, the hologram pulsed in time to the teeth-rattling bass of its voice as it continued to speak.

"**Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh," **the image's voice sneered. **"You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. And now you bring this abomination to further corrupt the perfection and harmony of my sanctuary.**"

Illyria snorted. "You are the abomination here, Machine. Were you hiding in fear of me? When I worked under your arms for the last several months?"

"**We have no need of hiding," **the Voice snarled. **"Not from you." **The basso profondo of its voice hadn't changed a whit, but Xander thought he could hear anger. **"I am Sovereign! Our armies scorched your cities and annihilated your slaves and your assets-**"

"You bore me, machine." Illyria sneered. "Come and reveal yourself, so that I can tear you apart with my bare hands as I did a score of your brethren. You were as dust hurling yourselves against the wall of my greatness."

A sharp whistle rent the air and everything fell silent. Xander was a little shocked that he could bring the rampant one-upmanship to a stop, with a single sound.

"Not bad, Sergeant." Shepard whispered.

"Thank you." Xander nodded, before turning back to Illyria. "Just so we're clear, you ARE talking to Sovereign? The Reaper ship that Saren found, you're talking to it and it's talking back to you?"

Illyria laughed at him. "All this time, the woman has had the message of the beacon replaying in her head and you're saying that you've not once paid attention to its message? Is it only now do you begin to understand what it is that you face?"

"Sovereign isn't just some Reaper ship Saren found..." Shepard whispered, dumbstruck. "It's an actual Reaper."

"Wait," Xander interrupted. "You mean to tell me that the big bad we're fighting... that huge-ass spaceship that wiped out chunks of Eden Prime in a single blast, THAT thing is alive? THAT's a Reaper?"

"**Reaper; a superstitious label originating with the Protheans." **Sovereign rumbled, arrogant satisfaction in its voice. **"In the end, what they choose to call us was irrelevant. We simply... are.**"

"Oh, that's not good." Xander groaned. "This is SO not good."

"**The nature of our existence is so far beyond your comprehension that you cannot even conceive of it.**" Sovereign sneered.

"Your arrogance is unfounded, Little Machine," Illyria snapped. "You have been warned; your time will come soon enough. If these pitiful mortals do not rend you apart, then I surely will."

"It has to be lying," Liara insisted. "The Protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago. Illyria was... restrained, but you... you would have to be... no, it's impossible. You couldn't have been there."

"**Organic life is a genetic mutation."** Sovereign rumbled. **"An accident. You wither and die; your lives measured in years and decades. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution. Long after your civilization is eradicated and forgotten, we will endure.**"

"There's a whole galaxy of races ready to stop a dead end like you." Shepard snarled.

"**Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken.**"

"Cycle? What cycle?" Xander demanded.

"**The pattern has repeated itself more times then you can imagine. Organic civilizations rise. Evolve. Advance. And at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished.**"

Xander blinked as some very unpleasant pieces began to fall into place. But Sovereign was still bragging. "**The Protheans did not build the Citadel. They did not forge the Mass Relays. They only found them; the legacy of my kind.**"

Shepard snorted. "That's ridiculous. Why would you build the Mass Relays and then leave them for someone else to find?"

Illyria chuckled condescendingly. "That should be obvious, even to one of your kind. You are like herd beasts, being lead to your slaughter along a pathway of technological evolution. If you only know what they want you to know, then you learn only what they wish you to learn. And when they decide that knowledge has become too much of a threat..."

"...they wipe out any space-faring race before they can become a threat." Xander whispered. Anger and horror surged in him, quickly fighting with disgust.

"They're harvesting us," Liara whispered. "They let us advance to where we can produce resources and materials that they can use, then they kill us off before we get too powerful to be controlled."

"**Your civilization is based on the technology of the Mass Relays, OUR technology. By using it, you evolve along the paths we desire. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.**" Sovereign sneered.

"Their kind have invaded before." Illyria mused. "Every fifty thousand years they've come, seeking power and resources. Invariably, they found their way to Earth where they met..."

"The Old Ones... who I'm assuming kicked their asses." Xander mused.

Sovereign spoke again. "**They did not defeat us. Our battles resulted in stalemate upon stalemate.**" Xander thought he could hear a touch of defensiveness in Sovereign's electronically distorted voice.

"They could not defeat us," Illyria continued. "Nor could we stop our eternal conflicts with each other, long enough to reach beyond the Earth to smite them once and for all. Besides, we had what we desired; an empire, unchallenged, with slaves to serve our needs."

"Yeah, slaves who ultimately rebelled against you and locked you in a box at the bottom of a damn hole in the ground." Xander sneered.

Illyria's warning growl was all the warning Xander got before a stinging backhanded slap knocked him back.

Liara helped him off the ground from where Illyria's blow had thrown him. The blood on his lip from her strike was already drying, the broken skin closing up until not even a scar could be seen.

"Hey, figured I owed you one after you threw what happened between Anya and Peroxide-Boy in my face." Xander snapped.

"So, the Reapers never conquered Earth because of the Old Ones." Shepard said in realization.

Liara nodded in understanding. "...and the Old Ones never left Earth because they were too busy fighting each other to try and conquer the rest of the galaxy."

"...but now you face the machines. This time, you do so without us to protect you as we did for generations." Illyria snorted.

"You're not even alive," Shepard snapped at Sovereign. "You're just a machine. And machines can be broken."

"**I am the vanguard of your destruction.**" Sovereign sneered smugly. "**Our armies will darken the skies of every world. You cannot escape us. You will finally be brought to heel. This exchange is over.**"

And the hologram cut out, while the console exploded with enough force to take out the windows of the room.

"Well, that was needlessly dramatic." Xander sighed.

"Normandy to Shepard! Come in, Commander!" Joker's voice came through the com. If he was breaking radio silence, it could only be for some dire emergency.

"That you, Joker?"

"I don't know what you did down there, but Sovereign just started moving! It pulled a turn that would tear any of our ships in half, and it's bearing down on your location, coming in hard! You'd better wrap things up in there, ASAP!"

"Then we make for the breeding facility and blow this place to hell and gone."

"What about her?" Xander asked, jerking his thumb at Illyria.

"What about her?" Shepard shrugged. "I'm guessing that anything that could kill her is well out of our reach." She then turned to Illyria. "Take Rana and get out of here. If you're lucky, you and I won't see each other again.''

"If you don't survive what is to come, then you're right; you and I won't be seeing each other again." Illyria sneered before walking off to the elevator.


	22. Virmire 7

**AN- Thanks to Reikson for the help, support and assisstance keeping me on track . I've been PM'ed about this enough I'll answer it here for now and eventually in-story - Shepard looks like the lovely Gina Torres - think Zoe Washburne with her hair pulled back **

Illyria retrieved Rana and they escaped.

Xander thanked the Powers-that-Be that he was the only one who saw Illyria stepping through some kind of tear in subspace that she'd opened, dragging the still whining Rana along after her. Explaining Illyria's powers of temporal manipulation was bad enough without adding the need to explain teleportation as well.

Shepard's face was a study in grim determination. As Xander watched her, he found himself thinking back to those last few battles in Sunnydale. Back when it seemed like beating Caleb and the First wasn't just a matter of protection or survival, but seemed like Buffy's entire reason for even breathing.

He remembered all too well how often Buffy had felt like the weight of responsibility for everyone's life or death was all on her. Xander made a vow to himself; this time, it'd be different. He wouldn't lose anyone like he'd lost Anya, Renee and so many others. This time, he promised himself, everyone would make it home.

They blew the AA gun and made it to the reservoir; a big, open area bordered by large fuel cells and the Krogan Breeding Tanks. They faced just enough resistance to lull them into a sense of security. If anyone thought things were proceeding a little too easily they ignored their misgivings, just like they were supposed to.

Off in the distance, Xander could hear the sound of another big AA gun blowing itself apart. Ashley's team had made it to the second AA tower.

Joker rejoiced and Xander relaxed as he saw the Normandy coasting in low, landing in the reservoir. They were halfway home. Maybe his bad feeling was wrong. Maybe, just this once, the Powers-that-Be weren't going to screw with the good guys.

Tali'Zorah came down the gangway, gingerly hauling the jury-rigged nuke with Requisition Officer Hobbs before putting it down gently.

"Bomb's in position." Kaidan reported.

"I just need a few more minutes for some last calibrations, then we should be good to go." Tali reported.

"Tech Sarge," Xander glanced at Hobbs.

The Req Officer was staring at an old suborbital cargo pod. "This cargo pod, sir. You want anything done with it?" The young man asked. Xander took a look at the pod for himself. It was beaten and had a few streaks of corrosion on it, but...

"Leave it there, Hobbs." Xander finally said. "Help Tali with the bomb while I check out this bad boy. It might come in handy, even if it's just for spare parts, right?"

Hobbs nodded, walking toward the Quarian. Then the Requisitions Officer saw a glint of metal where there shouldn't have been, and darted forward, shoving Tali out of the way even as a bolt tore through his kinetic barrier. He fell, crying out in pain.

Then there was an explosion, and several more shots had them all ducking for cover.

"Damn it all! I thought this area was secure!" Shepard swore.

Several figures had fanned out across a catwalk overlooking the bombsite and were now raining down fire upon them.

Xander found himself huddled with Garrus, next to the nuke.

"I'm not sure this thing should be soaking as much enemy fire as it's doing!" Xander shouted, keeping his head down. "Who are these guys?"

"I recognize their uniforms!" Garrus yelled back, spraying assault rifle fire at their attackers. "They're a slaver group that usually runs out of the Artemus Tau cluster!"

"Could you guys please stop shooting at the thermonuclear device?" Xander bellowed, ducking to avoid another barrage of bullets before popping out and scoring a headshot that sent a slaver's corpse falling into the rushing waters below.

Shepard's cold voice came over the comlink. "Garrus! - the fuel tank three meters down from the snipers on the catwalk; can you hit it?"

The former C-Sec officer looked down. He saw that Shepard had noticed a fuel tank that was all but impossible to hit from where she was crouched. But his sniper rifle was perfect for such a shot.

He focused his aim and pulled the trigger. A mighty roar and a blossom of fire and heat hurled the slaver troops, on the catwalk, high up into the air and tossing them like chaff in a fiery whirlwind.

The group's Asari leader screamed in rage, her biotics flaring around her body, as she fired at Garrus. Meanwhile, Xander had dived behind the nuke for cover. As she stalked towards them, keeping up a steady stream of fire, she suddenly found herself being thrown to the side.

Requisitions Officer Hobbs had somehow found a second wind and hurled himself at the slaver, his attack making her shot go wild and bouncing off the bomb casing, only narrowly avoiding Xander.

A blast from Wrex's shotgun spun the Asari through the air, making her land on the ground hard.

Shepard walked over to Hobbs, the boy already coughing up blood.

"Did... I... get... her... ma'am?" he asked weakly, panting with each word.

"You did fine, Hobbs. She's down." Shepard said, holding his hand as he breathed his last.

Shepard rose from where his body had fallen, her eyes darkening with rage. Then she stalked over to Dahlia lying nearby, slamming a boot down onto the slaver's chest, shoving her back into ankle-deep water that flowed over her face. The slaver gurgled and spat, trying to not to drown as she fought against the weight of Shepard's foot keeping her head underwater.

"Where's Saren?" Shepard hissed.

"He's waiting for you on the AA tower."

"You mean the AA tower that just went up in flames, sweetheart? Try again." Shepard drawled coldly, forcing the Asari back underwater before letting her up to grab a quick breath.

"I'm telling you the truth!" the Asari slaver sputtered. "Please let me go! I... I have money! I can give you creds!"

"You think I want a flesh-peddler's money?" Shepard growled. She shoved the Asari's head back under the water. The Slaver's thrashing struggles began to weaken.

"If you want, I can take her to the brig." Kaidan offered quietly.

"The brig?" Shepard sneered.

"We can drop her off with the military. I can arrange for a couple of the guys to watch her." Kaiden insisted. "She's a criminal, we caught her... she should be handed over to the authorities so she can serve her time."

Shepard turned her cold gaze on the Asari. Finally, she said, "I think our resources might be better spent elsewhere, Lieutenant." Just before she shot her captive in the head.

"If you could arrange for Hobbs to be taken care of, for the trip home, I'm sure he and his NEXT OF KIN would appreciate that." She snapped coldly.

Shepard checked the Asari's body. She was some kind of slaver, all right. And she had money; the datapad on her corpse showed that she'd recently got a huge infusion of credits, some kind of blackmail scheme.

"Garrus, does the name Nassana Dantius mean anything to you?" she asked.

"She's a big-time Citadel Diplomat," Garrus explained.

Liara piped up. "She also sits on the Serrice University Executive Board and their Appropriations Committee."

"I heard Harkin say that her family had a few skeletons in their closets." Garrus continued, "I should've pressed for details, but... well... this is Harkin we're talking about, here."

Shepard nodded, agreeing to the Turian's unspoken sentiment. "The man's a repulsive bastard."

Shepard had her own run-in with the drunken disgrace of a C-Sec cop while searching for evidence to nail Saren. If this Nassana was connected to the dead slaver, then it was something that she was definitely going to follow up on.

Heading back to the bomb, she scowled upon finding that its controls were a ruined mess. The bomb had taken enemy fire and had not emerged unscathed.

"Shit," she cursed. "Please tell me the bomb still works."

"You want the bad news or the worse news?" Xander sighed. "Bad news is, the detonator's shot to hell."

"I can fix it, Commander." Tali explained. "But that will take me at least half an hour."

"And Sovereign and the rest of the Geth will be on us by then..." Shepard groaned.

"...at which point, we might as well be dead." Xander finished. "Believe me, boss, I'm not unaware of just how screwed we are."

"All right, what's the worse news?" She groaned.

"We can fix it in less than ten minutes if we cannibalize the timing mechanism. But most of the security would no longer work and the Geth would be able to hack it."

Tali shook her head. "Xander, that's just not practical. Someone would have to stay here and manually set the bomb off and protect it almost until detonation. That would be suicide."

Then Shepard realized why Xander might even want to consider such an action.

"Tech Sergeant, with me." Shepard took him aside. "Tell me you thought this through." she ordered him quietly.

"I'm not that good a liar, Boss." he murmured softly to her.

"There's no guarantee that you'd even survive the explosion." she snapped, her voice a harsh whisper.

"No reason I shouldn't, especially if I stack the deck in my favor. That cargo pod Hobbs found? It's damage-rated for reentry, so I figure it can survive riding a nuclear explosion."

"When they're working, Xander." Shepard hissed. "The key word being 'working' as the most important. That one looks like it's barely ready to survive a stiff breeze, let alone weathering a thermonuclear detonation."

"I'm not trying to jump Mass Relays with it, Boss. It just has to stay in one piece and THAT is something the pod can do. If I'm inside it when the bomb goes off, then my body should stay intact."

"We retrieve the pod, pull you out..."

"...and just hope that the last two hundred years wasn't the universe setting me up for the galaxy's biggest gotcha."

Shepard opened the comm. "Joker, what's Sovereign's ETA?"

"It's coming in hard, Commander!" Joker reported. "I'd say we've got less then fifteen minutes before that dreadnought's on our ass. And do I even need to mention that Geth reinforcements will be on us even faster?"

"Don't you love the hand of fate?" Xander grumbled. "It really sticks it in and breaks it off."

Shepard nodded grimly. "All right. Tali, change of plans. Gut the timing mechanism. Harris, go over that pod with a fine-tooth comb. I want to make sure that it can do what we need it to do."

"Commander, are you sure about this?" Tali asked.

"Do it, Tali. Xander and I have a plan. Just trust me."

"I trust you with my life, Commander," the little Quarian said, loyalty in her voice.

"Thanks, Tali. Hopefully, that won't be necessary. Well, assuming that the next few minutes play out like they should..." Shepard nodded.

Shepard radioed to Ashley. There was no point to secrecy now. "Williams, we're five by five! Get to the rendezvous, on the double!"

"I'm sorry, Shepard," a cold voice came over the line. "Chief Williams' team is unable to respond. She's still alive, but how long she remains that way is completely up to you."

"Saren." she ground out.

"I feel as if we should've spoken before this. You being the junior member of our order and all. Perhaps you can come up to the AA tower. I'm sure that Chief Williams would be very, very happy to see you."

"I'm going to end you." Shepard hissed.

"Don't take too long, Shepard. I doubt Chief Williams could survive my disappointment."

She looked at Xander. "You know it's a trap, right?" the young-looking immortal drawled. "He wants us to waste time fighting him until Sovereign's upon us."

She nodded. "Tell Alenko to get everyone back aboard the Normandy. Get into the air and meet me on the AA tower." Shepard grabbed Xander's shoulder. "Don't let me down Xander, I'm enjoying your track record of pulling off the impossible. I'm counting on you to keep it up."

"Boss, with all due respect... it's me." Xander replied lightly. But she noticed that the cockiness of his words and smile didn't quite reach his eyes. He was just as worried about making it through, as she was.

"That's why I'm worried, Xander." She teased. "See you on the other side."

"Yes, ma'am," he saluted her mockingly. "Understood, ma'am."

She slugged him in the shoulder, chuckling.

_

Kaidan, and the men he'd assigned to transport The Requisition Officer's body, arrived back at the bombsite. While they went about their grim task, the biotic mused about what he'd seen of his commanding officer while on the trip.

He didn't much care about slavers and certainly didn't shed any tears that one was dead.

But there were rules, procedures.

Just because Shepard's extraterritorial authority let her do something, it didn't necessarily follow that she needed to do it.

Kaidan had seen Garrus and Wrex preparing to depart with Shepard.

They were supposed to save Ashley, but he had a sneaking suspicion that if the opportunity to kill Saren showed itself, she'd risk anything to accomplish that goal. The scary thing was that her attitude was spreading to the rest of the team.

Garrus had told everyone about his most troubling cold case; a renegade Salarian geneticist named Doctor Saleon. Shepard had gone after him without hesitation and, while Kaidan would agree that the Salarian's actions were monstrous, he was disturbed by how Shepard had practically goaded the Turian into executing the Doctor.

He recalled that chilling moment with icy clarity; Garrus standing over the dead doctor.

"How's it feel to finally put him down?" Shepard had asked.

"It felt... good." The Turian had muttered.

"Remember that feeling, Garrus." Shepard had said. "When scum like him get what's coming to them... it should always feel like that."

The smile on her face when she'd said it... God help him, but Kaidan had been terrified of her.

He'd shared his own past with Shepard, trying to make her see how he'd felt about bullies like Vyrnnus. Instead, Shepard seemed shocked that he hadn't enjoyed killing the cruel, old Turian.

The truth was that Shepard hated bullies. She despised them with a passion. At some point, she'd begun using her duties as a soldier and Spectre to work out that frustration.

Kaidan looked over and saw Shepard talking with Xander in hushed voices.

He seemed calm.

Devil-may-care, really, and Shepard seemed as focused as ever. Her target was Saren, everything else be damned. And Xander trusted her so completely that he couldn't see that all she cared about was Saren, and that nothing else mattered.

If the chance to kill the rogue Spectre meant tossing all their lives away, even Doctor T'soni, then Shepard would do it in a heartbeat. Of that, he had no doubt.

Shepard, Wrex, and Garrus all departed for the AA tower. Behind her, the group got busy. Xander checked the pod to make sure that it would survive the explosion, while Tali raided the timer for parts needed to repair the detonator.

Kaidan was enough of a tech expert that he could follow what Tali was doing to the bomb. "Tali, are you sure the timer will still work?" he asked her. When the Quarian turned her helmeted gaze on him, he backpedaled. "I mean, the way you have it set now..."

"It's essentially a dead man's switch now, Lieutenant," Tali explained. "Switch it on and wait five minutes... well, it explodes."

"What lunatic volunteered for that job?" Kaidan chuckled.

Tali pointed over to Xander toiling away at the cargo pod. Kaidan gaped, before marching over to Harris.

"Xander, what's this about you staying behind to set-off the bomb?" the biotic demanded. "Are you nuts? You can't just throw your life away like that!"

"Trust me when I say it's not a problem, Kaidan." Xander replied calmly.

"You don't need to do this!" the biotic yelled at him.

A high-pitched whine interrupted the two of them, and they looked up to see a Geth Dropship approaching their position.

"Kaidan, we now have zero time to debate this." Xander snapped. "When this is over, you're going have another shot at Ashley."

Then he patted the biotic man's shoulder. "You take care of her, okay? It was fun while it lasted, but you can make her a lot happier than anything that I could've done. I should've realized that from the beginning and not gotten myself involved."

He ran back to the bomb, grabbing an assault rifle and a pistol as he left.

"Go grab Shepard and Ash and get the hell out of here!" Xander yelled back as he ran to defend the bomb. "I'll be fine! Trust me on this one! Shepard has a plan and it'll work!"

Kaiden stood on the gangway as the Normandy took off. He could already see a sea of Geth pouring from the Dropship, swarming towards Xander and the bomb like locusts.

_

Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex arrived to find Saren waiting for them. Ashley knelt at his feet, a pistol jammed into the back of her head.

"This has been an impressive diversion, Shepard." Saren drawled. "My Geth were utterly convinced that the Salarians were the real threat. But I can't let you disrupt what I've accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake."

"The Reapers are returning, and you decided they'd be your ticket to whatever power or glory that you think the Reapers will let the Turians take!" she sneered as she took cover. "Instead of finding a way to stop them, like any sane person would, you're just trying to save yourself."

"I'm not doing this for myself!" he snapped. "Don't you see? The Reapers can't be stopped! Not by you, not by anyone! My way is the only way that any of us will survive!"

"...as a slave?" she snarled. "Are you insane? I'd rather die then live under those things!"

"Then you will die!" he snapped. "Everyone you know and love, everyone that you've ever met... they will all perish! Just like the Protheans! Trillions dead; an entire empire erased virtually overnight!"

Then he became inquisitive, and Shepard found herself confused. "But what if they had surrendered? Might they still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction? Especially if those that prove useful become the dominant force in the galaxy?"

But those last words cemented her resolve. "The Reapers have been beaten before!" she insisted. "You saw the same visions that I did! The Old Ones did it, we can do it too!"

Saren snorted, sneering at her. "This is what you'd hang the hopes of the entire galaxy? Myth and legends? Now who's the insane one, Shepard?"

"You were a Spectre! You swore an oath-"

"To preserve galactic stability at all costs." Saren sneered. "And look what that's accomplished! The Council; ineffective politicians too interested in their own power, and their fear of losing it, to see beyond their own narrow little minds!"

She could hear him grinning. "How do you think I managed to sway them against Anderson? Why do you think your race is so distrusted especially by the council? They're afraid of you. And what people fear-"

"People come to hate." She realized.

"The Reapers can change all that. The Krogan are a dying people; the genophage has seen to that. But the Krogan here on Virmire are free of the genophage. Their offspring would be free of it, as well. The Rachni need not be an extinct race, if they could be made to serve the Reapers as well."

Saren made a clever argument. If it hadn't been for just one thing...

"You mean, as mindless slaves?" Shepard sneered. "I saw what your so-called cure did. The indoctrination will drain the will of every man, woman, and child in Citadel space! Just like you."

"I'm not indoctrinated!" he snarled.

"Keep telling yourself that." Shepard sneered. "Sovereign's controlling you and you don't even know it."

"Indoctrination lowers intelligence. It's subtle. The more control that Sovereign exerts, the less capable the subject becomes. As long as Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit, my mind is still my own."

"Live in servitude or die? That's my choice?" Shepard snorted.

"If you want to save as many as can be saved, then... Yes, THAT is the choice. Now call your man at the bomb site. Tell him to deactivate that bomb or your Chief Williams will not live to see her sisters again."

"Don't listen to him, ma'am! Take him out!" Ashley screamed.

"Oh, please," Saren sneered. "It's like I told you before, Shepard. Humans aren't ready for the sacrifices necessary to become Spectres and I shall prove it."

Looking up, Saren called out to Xander. "Harris, I know you've been listening! Deactivate the bomb, let my Geth capture it and you, and I'll let Chief Williams go! She'll live to see you again! To see her dear sisters again!"

"Ah, Commander, I'm getting a lot of bullshit on this line!" Xander's voice crackled through the radio. "I could've sworn that you told me to activate the bomb right now."

"That's exactly what I said, Harris." Shepard said flatly. "I'd hoped to take out that ship of his, but this is fine too. Activate the nuke and blow this place back to Hell!"

"Kick his ass, boss lady!" he caroled.

Then, a siren began whining. It was the nuke's final warning.

Shepard smiled. "Oooh, so sorry, Saren. The bomb's already set. It can't be stopped. Not by me, not by you, and certainly not by Xander."

"Harris?" Saren snorted. "Alexander Harris? I'd wondered how you were staying so close to my trail, Shepard. But if Harris was with you all this time, then it all makes sense. My brother underestimated him and he paid the price. Now I see that I've made the same mistake. My Geth should be overwhelming his position right about now. They will capture him for me, and then I'll have both of your secrets."

Shepard looked at Ashley, still locked in Saren's grip. They exchanged a look, and Ashley disconnected the power cell to her suit's kinetic barrier.

Saren didn't even notice because he was so busy sneering at Shepard. "A Spectre, a real Spectre, acts without hesitation. You're no Spectre, Shepard. You don't have what it takes."

"That may have been true once, but I learned from the best." Shepard drawled as she looked at Ashley. "Williams? Do you remember what Gunny Ellison says about pain?"

"Pain's just weakness leaving the body. Do it, ma'am."

Shepard yanked up her gun and fired once. The bullet tore through Ashley's shoulder and hit Saren behind her. He was too close for his kinetic barrier to be of any help, so the shot ripped right through him. Howling in pain, he shoved Ashley at Shepard and hobbled away, shooting back at them. Shepard dived and danced through a hailstorm of gunfire.

Wrex fired shotgun blasts at the Spectre, who hit the Battlemaster with a powerful concussion shot from his weapon. Wrex's shield shimmered and died as Saren lashed out with a biotic push that shoved the old Krogan back.

Saren then fired another biotic attack that sent Wrex into the air. The Battlemaster managed to grab hold of a damaged strut, and held on for dear life as he waited for his personal gravity to pull him back to the rooftop.

"Garrus! Grab Williams now!" Shepard snarled as she ran after Saren, who had slumped onto a rocket sled. But just as it began to rise into the air, Shepard slammed into Saren and began punching him where he'd just been shot.

Yelling in pain, Saren grabbed her head and slammed his forehead into her face. Shepard reeled, seeing stars for a second before lashing out at the bullet wound in Saren's side with another successful punch.

The two of them struggled with each other aboard the rocket sled, lost in a frenzy of hate. Finally, Saren threw Shepard from the rocket sled and she crashed onto a rooftop hard, just hard enough to leave her winded and bruised.

Saren dived after her, grabbing her by the throat and pulling her over to the sheer drop off the roof.

"You would undo my work!" he snarled. "You would rather doom our entire galaxy to extinction? For that... you must die." And his three fingers began to crush Shepard's throat.

She promptly clapped her hands around Saren's head before punching him in the face. The Turian reeled back, dropping her as she was left sprawled to the rooftop and scrambling for her weapon. But Saren had jumped over her to land on his rocket sled, and it quickly carried him away.

Shepard watched him leave, seething, before she turned and raced for the Normandy hovering nearby. Diving through the air, she landed in the cargo hold. Her body rolled across the hard floor of the cargo bay in an attempt to arrest its impact.

When she finally uncurled herself, she ran to an intercom and shouted, "Get us out of here now, Joker!" even as she felt the weight of the ship shift. They were heading skyward.

Wincing at her injuries, she ran through the ship and up to the CIC, heading straight to the pilot's seat. "Joker, tell me that we're going to miss getting fried by that dreadnought."

At his nod, she bent down and hit the shipwide comm. "Alenko! Get everyone to the medbay! Williams is not to budge from that bed 'til Chakwas gives her the all-clear!"

There was no answer. So she went to the comlink.

"Alenko!" she bellowed. "Where are you? I need you up here!"

"Just running a retrieval op, ma'am!" his voice called back.

"What the Hell? Where the Hell are you?" she shrieked into the comlink. Still in the pilot seat, Joker winced.

"I'm down on Virmire, ma'am! I'm getting Xander! I should have enough time to get to him before Sovereign's in range!"

"Are you crazy, Alenko? Sovereign's too close! I can't risk bringing the Normandy back to get you! Especially with that bomb about to go off!"

"Well, if you're right, then I guess I'll see you in Hell, ma'am." Kaidan said flatly as he cut off the transmission.

Shepard looked at Joker, who just shook his head. "We'd be chewed into Geth chowder, and that's BEFORE Sovereign got a piece of us."

"Then get us out of here, Joker. Park us in high orbit over the bomb site and hold the Normandy there."

_

Kaidan Alenko dropped out of the Normandy's cargo bay, his body sheathed in a biotic field as he soft-landed on the ground. He had maybe a few minutes, if that, to get to Xander.

He ran, legs pumping and blood racing through his amped-up system. He had to get to Xander, he just had to.

Kaidan lifted himself over a retaining wall to land in the wide open space of the reservoir. In front of him, Xander was battling Geth troopers by the score, an assault rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other as he took shots at anything that moved. Behind him, the bomb site was surrounded by the junked remains of a dozen Geth.

Kaidan reeled back and summoning a ball of force that rolled along the ground, one of Vyrnnus' little tricks that Kaidan hadn't seen a use for when he was still at Brain Camp back at Jump Zero.

Still, it was pretty effective. What he might've called "Bowling Ball" skidded across the ground and collided with the incoming Geth, unfolding into a wave of energy that sent God-knows-how-many Newtons of gravitational force into the incoming waves of Geth Troopers and knocked them to the ground rather effectively.

This was enough for Xander to look up and see Kaidan. "What the Hell? Alenko, what are you doing here? The bomb's about to go off! Get out of here!"

"Not happening, Harris. You don't get to die today. Now come on, let's get you out of here." The veteran biotic insisted, grabbing Xander's arm and trying to pull him away from the jury-rigged drive core.

Xander yanked his arm away, shoving Kaidan back. "I'm not standing here for my health, Alenko!" he roared, gesturing at the impromptu nuke. "If we leave this thing alone, the Geth will find a way to access its controls and defuse it! The only way to prevent that is to either set it off early or ride out the explosion!"

"...then you're getting out of here." Kaidan determined, grabbing him again.

This time, Xander slugged him, hard enough to knock the biotic back. "You don't get it! Shepard and I have a plan!"

At this point, Kaidan lost his temper and shouted, "You blowing yourself up is not a plan!"

"No, YOU don't understand! I can handle it! Please, just get out of here! I'll try and hold them off as long as I can!"

Kaidan nodded "Okay, I'll go, but first..." He channeled the strongest biotic punch that he could muster into his fist and then slammed it full force into Xander. Reeling from the force of the blow, the other man shook his head as he tried to fight off the instant concussion.

But Kaidan didn't mind. He knew for a fact that Xander could take a lot of punishment. You had to be tough in order to survive a Thresher Maw attack, so he didn't hesitate in hitting the boy again, just as hard. Just to make sure he was unconscious.

Kaidan picked up Xander's body and tossed it into the cargo pod. One of the Geth targeted them both, firing a pulse rifle blast that skidded off Kaidan's biotic-assisted shields and hit the surface of the pod. Kaidan flexed his hand and threw another "Bowling Ball" at the synthetic, tossing it backward.

Kaidan locked the controls of the pod, sealing its contents away from the outside world. The pod then began powering up and Kaidan turned back to scoop up the discarded pistol, firing rounds at the advancing Geth and firing off Pulls that sent them high into the air, or Throws that sent them flying back into their comrades.

Then he heard it; Xander pounding on the pod's glass window. His radio crackled.

"Alenko! Alenko, what the Hell are you doing? You idiot! You don't get it! I can't die, don't you understand? I'm..." the rest of it was little more than static as the cargo-pod engines flared to life and began pushing its burden skyward.

Kaidan chuckled grimly as he watched the pod climb. Xander was tough, but the idea that he could be immortal was just ridiculous. Besides, he had Ashley to think about as well, not just himself.

Xander slammed his fist at the controls, trying to make them work. Kaidan had done quite a job on them. By the time he finished rewiring the controls, he'd be in orbit. As he looked down at the controls in front of him, he noticed an odd red light blinking away

"...Structural Integrity Alert. Hull compromised," he read aloud from the display.

Xander looked around and saw a hairline fracture in the wall of the pod. He knew, without checking, that the fracture carried through to the surface.

Oh, great, the pod was venting atmosphere. Assuming that he survived the explosion of the bomb and the ride into orbit, he could look froward to spending his last few minutes choking to death as the oxygen bled away.

"Aw, shit. Death by suffocation, death by vacuum exposure, or death by radiation poisoning... and it's not even my birthday." He sighed bitterly.

_

Kaidan Alenko winced as he cradled his side. A Geth bullet had punched through his armor and he could barely see straight from where it had hit his liver. But he defended the bomb site nonetheless, his two pistols picking off Geth with tungsten-modded rounds.

With survival not a possibility, he chuckled grimly as he carefully picked off Geth Troopers in twos and sometimes threes, trying not to let his guns overheat. As he continued shooting, his mind flashed back to Brain Camp for some reason.

Back to his old crush, Rahna.

God, how long had it been since he'd thought about that girl? She'd be a woman now. Probably happily married somewhere.

"Never thought I'd go out like this, Rahna. Right?" And as he heard the nuke's timer wind down, he let his arms and guns fall. Propping his head up against the nuke, he stared up at Virmire's blue skies and couldn't help but think of Earth.

As he closed his eyes, fire blossomed across his back for a split-second of absolute pain.

Then, he felt nothing.

Everything went black.

Xander looked back at the shrinking bomb site. He was still looking when the bomb went off. He didn't flinch as the bright flash blinded him. His eyesight would correct itself when he resurrected, but seeing a brave man die for him would happen only once.

Shepard fumed.

Kaidan, that idealistic idiot, had gone and ruined a perfectly good plan.

She was going to let the bomb go off, and then come back and pull Xander's hopefully regenerating carcass out of the ruins of the bomb site.

So why in God's name had Kaidan violated her orders?

Of course the answer to that was all too obvious; like everyone else, he saw her as the Butcher of Torfan, that she was tossing Xander's life away thoughtlessly.

"Are we getting ANY signals from the surface?" She asked Joker.

"A cargo pod's trailing us, broadcasting an Alliance IFF. It's Harris' code."

"What about Alenko?" Ashley asked. Her hardsuit had been stripped from her upper body, her arm and shoulder in a sling until Chakwas could get some medigel onto the gunshot wound.

"Sorry, just the one... aw, shit." Joker cursed. "According to scanners, the pod's venting atmo." He gestured meaningfully at the console and Shepard saw the pod had no life signs. She wondered if Joker was in on Xander's secret. That would explain why he, of all people, was choosing now to be circumspect.

"Bring it aboard. Clear the deck and seal off the area. Have Chakwas meet us down in the cargo bay, and tell her I'm on my way down there now. "

Ashley followed her, along with the rest of the command crew. They crowded the elevator and pushed their way into the cargo bay.

"What's going on, Commander Shepard?" Kirrahe demanded, once he noticed her striding into the bay.

"Confidential Alliance business. I'm afraid that you and your men will have to clear out, for the time being."

As the small band of surviving Salarians headed up to the mess hall, Shepard then said, "VI, seal all doors to the cargo bay, authorization: Shepard, Joan L., command code seven-zee-el-two, priority Alpha-Black."

"Cargo bay locked down until further notice," the toneless voice of the VI noted aloud. "Commander Shepard is the only person on the Normandy who is authorized to lift this lockdown order."

"What's going on, Commander?" Ashley wanted to know.

Shepard turned to her. "What you're about to see is... well, you could say that it's classified at the highest levels. Truth is, even Alliance High Command doesn't know what you are about to see."

She then turned to Doctor Chakwas, who'd just shown up. " Helen, I need you to not freak out..."

But Chakwas surprised her by saying aloud, "VI, disable room monitoring equipment, authorization as given by ship's medical officer."

"Authorization logged."

"Delete log, as per the Torchwood Protocol."

"Initiation of Torchwood Protocol accepted."

"What the Hell?" Shepard turned on Chakwas.

"Has he told you about the Watcher's Council yet?" Doctor Chakwas asked.

Shepard shook her head

"Probably hasn't even figured it out himself..." Chakwas sighed. "All right, everyone step back! His longest recorded... death, was ninety minutes, but these are some major injuries."

"What are you talking about?" Ashley demanded, trying to suppress her grief. By that time, the cargo pod had opened up to reveal Xander's body.

Chakwas looked at Xander's corpse with her trained critical eye."Nothing unexpected; vacuum exposure, oxygen deprivation, and it looked like he took some radiation before the pod was thrown clear. You can see the burns."

Ashley looked into his normally handsome face rendered ugly by his death.

"He's gone..." she said, more to herself then anyone else.

"Not for long, little human. Watch and learn." Wrex rumbled.

Ashley watched as the wounds on Xander's body closed up, and color flowed back into his bluish face. Suddenly, his back arched upwards as he gasped loudly.

"Kaidan, you-!" he screamed before he started coughing violently.

"What the Hell happened down there?" Shepard demanded.

"Kaiden..." Xander coughed. "...Kaidan showed up, wanted to rescue me. Hit me with a biotic punch when I wouldn't leave the bomb site with him. I woke up in the pod when it was already taking off."

"Damn it!" Shepard cursed.

Ashley gaped, her mouth hanging open and shock written all over her face.

"You... you were dead, Xander!" she sputtered.

"That happens with me sometimes. Just ignore it." Xander replied, sounding exhausted.

"You knew?" Ashley turned to Shepard, pained at what she felt was a betrayal. "You knew and you still let Kaidan-"

"I didn't LET Kaidan do anything, Gunnery Chief!" Shepard exploded. "Kaidan violated my orders! If he'd just trusted me, then all of us would've made it back!"

"If he'd known..."

"I don't exactly advertise, Ash." Xander replied, "You saw Toombs and you heard about the Rachni on Noveria. What do you think would happen to me if the brass ever found out just how unique I really am?"

"The Alliance isn't like that." Ashley said, defensive.

"Keep telling yourself that. I mean, sure, the Systems Alliance scapegoated your grandfather and blackballed your dad." he snapped, sarcastic. "But, hey, High Command can totally be trusted not to exploit or take advantage of someone if they saw a benefit to it."

"That's just an excuse so you can get away with lying to everybody! The Commander! To Kaidan! To me..." her voice trailed off at the end.

"If Kaiden had trusted me and followed my orders, he'd still be alive, Chief." Shepard sighed.

"Jenkins followed your orders on Eden Prime and he died." The accusation went unspoken. "Those soldiers at Torfan followed your orders and they died. Maybe Kaiden was thinking that following YOUR orders wasn't the smartest thing that a person can do."

The room went silent, Xander knew Shepard's one hot button was the Torfan siege. Lord Darius had pressed it and paid the price.

Shepard's fist clenched, rage darkening her eyes. "I make no apologies for what I did on Torfan, Williams. The men who died followed my orders but so did the ones who lived, They followed orders too. MY orders." She hissed. "The colonists who survived Eden Prime did so because you and Kaidan followed orders. MY orders."

Her hand swept across the room. "You're serving on the Normandy because Kaidan and I both told Anderson you were a good soldier! A soldier who could put aside the fact that she'd just seen her entire unit cut to shreds and STILL follow orders! Again, MY orders! You and those Salarians are alive right now because the infiltration team followed MY orders!"

It took Shepard had not to slap some sense into Ashley, so she settled for poking her in the chest.

"Harris and his team were following MY orders when they did what they could to make sure you and the STG teams made it through that frontal assault. We put our asses on the line for you. Harris put his life on the line for you. You're still breathing right now because Xander followed MY orders!"

"VI, disable room lock! Open the cargo doors!" Shepard barked before turning back to Ashley. "Considering how bent out of shape you get over your grandfather's legacy... if I were you, Williams, I'd ask yourself what he would've said about your little outburst."

Ashley spun around and hurried away. Everyone pretended that they didn't hear the sobs as she opened the entrance and left the cargo hold.

"Well, that was fun. In a fucking terrible, sick, not-at-all fun way." Xander grumbled.

"Doctor Chakwas, I think the Technical Sergeant needs a full examination. Be very thorough, if you please."

"Ah, c'mon, boss. You know I don't need-"

"Extremely. Thorough." Shepard snapped before stalking off.

Chakwas carted Xander off toward the Medbay, leaving the rest of the specialist team alone.

"Keelah... what just happened?" Tali asked, shocked.

"You think that's weird? Wait until you hear about the Old God and the whole Reaper thing." Garrus sighed. "We're so out of our depth that it's not even funny."


	23. Aftermath

**Thanks to Reikson ... and to my reviewers who have been following this story patiently. A lot of diverse thoughts came out of the last chapter some of which find their expression here ... enjoy. **

****************************************************************************

"The ends, if they are good, justify the means." Liara could hear the soft whisper as she opened the door to Shepard's cabin.

"Commander?" she asked, startled at the sound of her own voice disturbing the dark solitude of the cabin.

"Liara." Shepard perked up. "Chakwas give you a clean bill of health?"

"I barely had a scratch on me. I guess having you or Wrex to hid behind, when the shooting starts, has its advantages." The archaeologist said dryly.

"I see that hanging around Harris is starting to rub off on you." Shepard teased.

"I will admit that his methods of emotional coping leave something to be desired, but I can't dispute that people seem more comfortable in his presence."

"Yeah, much more comfortable then they ever get around The Butcher of Torfan." Shepard replied bitterly.

"That is not all that you are, Shepard. I've seen you do great things on this mission alone. Very few people could have accomplished what you did today."

"I beg to differ, Liara." Shepard sneered, frustration and self-loathing in her voice. "Getting good people killed seems to be a specialty of mine."

Catching the look on the young Asari's face, she added, "Sorry, Doc. I doubt you came up here to hear me bitch and whine."

"Actually, I did come to talk. You sequestered yourself after the mission, and I thought you might..." Liara trailed off uncertainly. Trying again, she managed, "Well, that is to say..." but faltered. Finally, she muttered, "Oh, Goddess. I'm not as good with this sort of thing as I should be."

"If it helps any, my father suggested that I try to imagine what the person that I admire the most would do or say." Shepard said helpfully.

Liara blushed. She was already picturing the person she admired the most, namely the Commander, far too much. Shepard filled her thoughts, day and night.

She tried to calm herself, centering her thoughts, and then decided that the best way to get herself on track was to ask Shepard something that might keep her talking for a few minutes.

"That phrase that you were just saying... I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but what does it mean?"

"Ah, yes... the wisdom of Niccolo Machiavelli." Shepard said bitterly. When she noticed the curiosity on Liara's face, she explained.

"Machiavelli was an ancient Earth philosopher. He wrote a text that was supposed to be a guide of sorts for those who ruled. Unfortunately, his theorems have become rather notorious on Earth. Mostly because some of the best and worst leaders of Earth's history have used its principles as justification for their actions."

Liara, ever patient and understanding, then pointed out, "The writings of the ancient Matriarchs have been similarly interpreted, and some would say misinterpreted, over the centuries."

"Basically," Shepard explained, "if my ultimate goal is good, then anything I do in service of that goal, regardless of the individual morality of the separate acts, must ultimately be good."

"I'm not sure I understand." Liara sighed, now confused.

"All right, look." Shepard sighed, groping for an example. "I see slavery as bad, thus I kill slavers and feel no small amount of pleasure in doing so I might add. By that thinking, whatever I do to someone like Dahlia Dantius is okay."

"I see..." The young Asari archaeologist mused aloud. "Such a harsh view of the galaxy. But after the things I've seen these last few weeks, it may be an understandable one."

"Liara, the problem is that morality is more complex then that. I killed Dahlia, but Kaidan didn't like that. I think he decided to do... what he did, because I killed that slaver." Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to ward off a headache. "If the good act, killing a slaver, costs me the life of a good man like Kaidan, then the act that preceded it becomes evil... thus making ME evil. The wonders and joys of consequentialism."

"Could not a person use such a philosophy to justify horrible acts?"

"Many people have. I mean, look at Saren. He more or less admitted that he thinks letting the Reapers consume the galaxy will be for the greater good. I guess that's why I'm sitting here."

"Am I to assume that you used such a philosophy to justify what happened at Torfan?"

"You looked it up, you tell me." Shepard replied, her voice drained of emotion, "What should I have done? We'd been fighting down in those tunnels for days, losing squad after squad. Plus, Command wanted results and they didn't much care how we got them."

"So what happened?"

"We'd just taken an enemy stronghold, capturing several prisoners, including the Base Commander. He comes strolling into our camp like he owns the place, invoking the Citadel charters and the articles of war. They hate us, but they studied us enough to know the lengths to which we go to maintain our sense of honor." Shepard was practically hissing at this point.

"So you interrogated him." Liara wasn't asking, and Shepard knew it.

"We'd been informed a long-range patrol was lost in the tunnels, maybe already in Batarian hands," she said, looking haunted. "He had the code phases to get us past the rest of the strong points and get to our people. Thing is, he refuses to negotiate with a woman. He thinks it's an insult that I won't produce Major Kyle who is in no condition to bargain for the lives of good men lost behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, I find out the commander's got a son, a boy who's serving in his first engagement. When we'd captured the camp, the commander had tried to hide him. But my men found the kid."

"How did you know they were family?"

-***-

_"You have such pretty eyes, you know that?"__  
__  
__"Of course. Mine are the eyes of a leader, a commander. Not like your weakling pair."__  
__  
__"You're right. My eyes aren't nearly as pretty as yours. But I bet your son's got pretty eyes like yours."__  
__  
__"My son? I have no-"__  
__  
__"A strong man like you? Of course you have a son. He'll obviously have eyes like yours. If he was at your side, fighting in your unit... I'm sure you wouldn't want him discovered. Or, worse yet, identified by the the enemy. But why worry? Most humans can't tell one Batarian from another... but YOU have such pretty eyes that I'll bet your son has pretty eyes like yours."__  
__  
__"My son is... not here. He's back on the homeworld. Back on Khar'shan."__  
__  
__"A strong man like you shouldn't have to lie. Not with such strong eyes as you come point your boy out to me. I think he's one of these men standing here."__  
__  
__"My son is not here, human. Now let me speak to your Major Kyle. I demand to speak to your leader."__  
__  
__"Now this one, he's got nice eyes, but they aren't pretty. Not like your eyes, so I know he's not who I'm looking for. Which is why I can do... this."__  
__  
__BLAM!__  
__  
__"Now this one here, his eyes... filled with fear. My goodness, they're not strong at all. Not like your eyes, so..."__  
__  
__BLAM!__  
__  
__"What the hell are you doing, human? This... what kind of a monster are you?"__  
__  
__"Now this one over here, is this your son? His eyes are closed, he's crying. Your son wouldn't cry... not with strong eyes like yours to guide him. So this one certainly can't be your son, now can he?"__  
__  
__BLAM!__  
__  
__"Now then, who's this we have here? Open your eyes... open them... I'm only going to ask you one more time. OPEN YOUR EYES!"__  
__  
__"Wait, human, wait! Please wait! I'll tell you everything! Just, please... don't hurt him. I'm begging you."__  
__  
__"You're begging me? Are you sure that you want your son to hear you say such things? You begging me, I mean."__  
__  
__"Father?"__  
__  
__"Everything will be all right, Bol'Shun."__  
__  
__"That's right, Bol'Shun. Everything will be all right. You, me, and your father... we're going to talk about a long-range patrol that passed by here three days ago. We're going to talk about the ambush that they almost certainly ran into. And we're definitely going to talk about how to reach them in time to save them."__  
_

"Most humans can't tell one Batarian from another," Shepard explained. "...but after they raided Mindoir, I spent years learning about them. Studying them. For instance, I know that a father is particularly proud when his son inherits the father's eyes."

A bitter smile curled her lips. "I did... questionable things that day, Liara. Things that the experts tell me that I should feel ashamed of myself for doing. But the experts... they weren't there. They didn't see the look of joy on the faces of those guys when we found them. On the faces of their families when they came home safe."

"So your lost patrol... you managed to reach them in time?"

"Yeah, I... we got to them. Every man was decorated for service above and beyond. Of course, that was also the first time that I ever heard my new nickname... And so The Butcher of Torfan was born."

"Then the ends, as they were good, justify the means. Do they not?"

"That's what I keep telling myself," Shepard laughed humorlessly. "I've almost managed to be convincing."

"I do not pretend to understand what you went through." Liara sighed, frustrated at being unable to comfort Shepard. "All I know is that I am alive because of you, and many others aboard this ship are as well. If the Alliance wishes to call you a monster, then that says more about them than it does about you. I do not see you as a monster."

"Maybe. What's up? Did you need me for something?"

"Chakwas thought that you might want to know that everyone is recovering. Xander insists on seeing you, as Doctor Chakwas keeps waving around a set of latex gloves and reminding him that you ordered a thorough examination. I admit that I do not understand his concern, but thought I would mention it when I spoke to you."

"I'll come and deal with it. What about everyone else?"

"Tali is with Serviceman Hobbs' body, and Chief Williams is at her station."

"Thanks, Liara."

"You're a good woman, Shepard. Perhaps better then you know."

"I'm capable of doing good things, Liara. But that doesn't make me a good person." Shepard said bitterly.

"If your actions save the lives of every man, woman, and child in the galaxy, then that is good. That makes you a good person, no matter what you did to achieve that goal."

"Doc, I think I'm starting to be a bad influence on you." Shepard said, smiling thinly.

"On the day we met, I cowered in fear of a Krogan Battlemaster. Ever since I met you, I've faced some of the most dangerous foes in the galaxy and lived to speak of it. Bad influence? With all due respect, Commander... I disagree."

Shepard stood up and stepped forward, hugging Liara. The young Asari nestled her head next to Shepard's heart and closed her eyes, reveling in the embrace. "Monsters are supposed to be fearsome things. But it is not fear that I feel when I am with you, Shepard."

"Thanks, Doc." Pulling away from Liara, and feeling a strange sense of loss, Shepard finally said, "I'd better go see what Xander wants."

_

**Xander's protests could** be heard long before she reached Medbay. When she walked into the room, Chakwas was just finishing her examination, tossing her latex gloves into a disposal bin.

"Jesus, Doc, I swallowed a marble when I was ten. Did you manage to find it while you were up there?" he screeched.

"How is he, Helen?" Shepard asked.

"No ill effects. I'd say the Technical Sergeant's going to be fine." Chakwas chuckled.

Glaring at Shepard, Xander grumbled. "I hate you, boss. I just want you to know that I genuinely hate you."

Unfazed by his declaration as she met his stare, Shepard asked, "How are you doing?"

"You mean, other than the whole 'somebody dying to save my life' thing?" he said sarcastically. "I'm just peachy."

"Kaidan isn't your fault, Xander." Shepard sighed. "You didn't make him do what he did. He made a choice. Let him own it. As much as I might resent what it means, it was still a noble choice."

"Meaning what?" Xander deadpanned.

"I thought I knew the people under my command. I certainly thought that I know my enemy. Now I find that I didn't know either of them. Kaidan didn't trust me. Hell, maybe he NEVER really trusted me, and Saren isn't in charge. He's just a figurehead, a... a puppet of Sovereign." Shepard sighed.

"Boss, I'm about to reveal a highly embarrassing detail about my personal life. My first... well, THE first, if you know what I mean... she was this girl named Faith. She was tough, passionate, definitely street-smart, and running the house on guys like me when I was still in short pants. My grand first time consisted of her basically using me to... well, she got what she wanted."

He chuckled bitterly. "THAT was an eye opener for me. 'Cuz, hey, guy here. So the idea of Girl using Guy for sex was like astrophysics for me; did not compute. To call it a one-night stand would imply that it lasted the night, which it didn't. When she was done with me, she tossed me out the door in my skivvies without even bus fare to get my ass home."

Fighting back a grin, Shepard said, "As amusing as that is, I'm guessing that you have a point?"

"Faith had issues." Xander sighed. "Hell, Faith's issues had issues, and it wasn't until much later that I came to realize that what happened between us was part of a long road of self-destructive crap that she'd been putting herself through. And because I didn't see that, it almost cost me my life. For real, because I was SO not immortal back then."

Sobered, she asked quietly, "What happened?"

He sighed and leaned against a nearby wall. "She started working for the bad guys at some point. Seems that they got to her by giving her the support and trust that she wasn't getting from us. When I confronted her, she tried to kill me."

At the incredulous look she shot him, he shrugged and added, "I thought that those ninety minutes of passion forged a magical connection between us."

"Kill you?" Shepard snorted. "You've got to be joking."

"No jokes, boss." Xander sighed, rubbing at his neck. "She nearly choked me to death, and... well, it was a long while before I could trust her enough to fight alongside her again. I even came to admire her."

A maudlin silence fell in the medbay. Finally, Shepard broke it by asking aloud, "Why would you tell me this, Xander?"

Xander fiddled with his omnitool for a few minutes before saying, "Maybe I want you to see that I screw up, too. I made mistakes with Faith that almost cost me my life. Maybe I want you to see that you aren't the first emotionally-damaged and extremely dangerous woman that I've dealt with."

The omnitool flashed briefly as he added, "Or maybe I'm telling you a story about a woman who died almost two hundred years ago because, if I want you to be able to trust me, I have to be able to trust you. And that starts with letting you in on my big secrets. Or, at least, the ones that actually mean something. Of course, it could be all of the above."

Shepard looked at him and shook her head. "I'm starting to think that you not being able to die is a safety mechanism to protect you from your own stupidity."

"Well, in hindsight, I have done some things that were epically stupid," he quipped. "But I had good intentions. That has to count for something, right?" His lopsided little grin of self-deprecation made her smirk in spite of herself, but she shook her head.

"Saren acted like he knew you, Xander." This was a point that had been nagging at her ever since Virmire. "If you want me to trust you, then tell me how you know him."

"Saren thinks his precious older brother is dead because I didn't bother sharing my super-secret knowledge of the Reapers with him." The immortal Scooby sneered.

Now intrigued, Shepard only said, "Go on..."

"Around the time of the First Contact War, I had a small side gig at the time regarding... well, the polite term would be antiquities acquisition."

"Tomb raiding." Chakwas supplied dryly.

"Tomb raiding? That's illegal on Earth and they aren't that fond of it in the rest of Citadel space, either."

"Yeah, they might not like it, but Serrice University got way less judgmental after I gave them the writings of Matriarch Dilinaga." Xander replied, smirking. "Made them pay through the nose for them.

"Do I even want to know WHY you'd pull a stunt like that? Depending on the artifact and the race involved, they'd be liable to lock you up for long enough that you might die and come back a few times."

"Sometimes you need someone who's not as... restricted... by red tape. And some of those writings were on planets in the Terminus Systems, planets controlled by the kind of guys who don't like archaeologists. "

"I get it," Shepard impatiently waved away his justification. "What happened with Saren and his brother?"

"I was with a trio of mercs that made planetfall on Shanxi in the last days of the First Contact War. Me and my partner back then, a guy named Harper, we were looking for a lost artifact." Xander explained, looking haunted. "I have no idea what it was doing there, but it looked a Hell of a lot like something made by that Reaper, Sovereign."

"Wait, Turian High Command knows about Reaper tech and you didn't think that might be something I'd want to know?" Shepard demanded.

"It's not like they still have it." Xander shrugged.

Now curious as to something she could use against Saren the next time they met, Shepard only said, "Go on."

"Harper and I found the artifact, all right." Xander said, pensive. "But one of his merc friends, Ben, got hit with some weird discharge from the artifact and got fried by it. Harper tried to save Ben, but couldn't reach him in time, which left the other merc Eva absolutely devastated."

He leaned in close, grinning as he muttered, "Scuttlebutt is that Eva had a crush on Ben."

Pulling away, he added, "In any case, Harper ended up being changed by the artifact somehow, but he didn't seem different otherwise. I got fried by it, too, but Harper saw me revive myself, so..."

"Anyway, I later heard that Saren's brother Desolas ended up being indoctrinated, and that Saren had to blow up that damn artifact with orbital bombardment in order to stop Desolas from using it to corrupt the Turian High Command or some other such stupidity."

"What happened to your partner?"

"Harper? He became obsessive. He thought that the artifact was the key to mankind's ultimate destiny, that my immortality was connected to the artifact somehow." Xander shuddered. "Dude was creeping me out, and... frankly, I got a bad vibe off that thing. So he and I parted company after we got to Arcturus after the First Contact War ended, and I've never seen him since."

Shepard cursed. "Damn it! I was hoping that there might be something we were missing."

"Boss, you heard Sovereign. They use their technology to control us. If we're going to beat this thing, we have to think outside the box. Way, WAY outside."

"Which means that we're stuck with plan A; find the Conduit on Ilos and hope like Hell that we can stop Saren from using it to kill us all."

"How soon we starting on that, anyway?" Xander asked.

"Those Geth Dropships did a number on us." Shepard sighed. "We'll put into dock at the Citadel and get some repairs done. Plus, the SSV Madrid's there. Hobbs' brother serves on her, so we can transfer the body to his custody."

Xander got off the wall, groaning as he stretched his arms. "Well..." he grunted, "...then it's high time that I got back to earning my pay voucher for this trip. I'll get Tali and we'll do what we can to get this baby up to spec before the repair crews screw her up TOO badly."

Shepard grinned in spite of herself. "Thanks, Xander. Oh, and by the way... good work down there. No matter what else happened, you did a lot of good. Kaidan was my responsibility. It was my choice to keep him in the dark about what you could do, so don't blame yourself."

"It was Harper. I trusted him with some of the details and he got all weird. I've been really careful about telling anyone ever since. Still, maybe if I'd trusted Kaiden more-"

"Xander, there's a lot of people who think that trust and respect are a right that they should just be given, no matter what. The truth is that trust and respect are earned."

"Maybe, but it just sucks, you know? Ashley thinks I lied to her, which... I guess I did, from a certain point of view..." he sighed, getting ready to walk past her. "...but it wasn't deliberate."

Shepard held up her hand, stopping him in his tracks. "That having been said; if I were you, I'd think long and hard about if this crew has earned the right to your trust. Especially since we're heading into battle together. These people have your back, Xander, and they need to know that you have theirs."

"Thanks, JL. I'll think about it." Xander smiled softly,

"JL's for special occasions, Xander. It's boss," she warned him lightly.

"Yeth, bossth." He slurred, sounding like Igor the hunchback assistant.

She punched him on the arm, smirking, before she had a thought. "By the way... about your friend, Faith... did she ever get help with... her issues?"

"Faith? Yeah, sort of." Xander sighed, smiling sadly. "I mean, things started getting better when we started treating her like the friend she really was, instead of some big, dark, and evil secret that we never talked about."

Shepard paused, nodding. "Thanks, Xander. Let me know when repairs are finished? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to finish a report followed by what I'm certain will be a lovely and supportive chat with the Council."

"Oh, joy," he said dryly. "You know, normally I'd love to hear what the Turian Councilor's going to say THIS time to piss you off, but I'd just as soon get started on the ship."

"No, that's all right," she said confidently. "They have the reports from the ground teams, including Kirrahe, who I'm dragging into the meeting. I'd like to see them deny the truth with one of their own vouching for me."


	24. Aftermath 2

**AN- Thanks to Reikson for the help, support and assistance. **

* * *

"Those idiots!" Shepard screeched as she stomped out of the comm room.

Behind her, Kirrahe empathized with her. "I wish that I could have been of greater help, Commander, but I can only speak of what I personally witnessed. And I was... otherwise engaged... while you had your... conversation with this Sovereign."

Shepard looked at the Captain. Then she sighed. "If I hadn't heard it, if I hadn't talked to it myself, heard the hatred in its voice, its contempt for all of us... I might not believe it myself."

"At least you've been given leave to deal with the matter." Kirrahe shrugged. "That's something, at least."

Shepard snorted, "Obviously, you were hearing a different conversation than I did." she sneered. "The Asari Consul treated me like I'm a problem child, while the Turian Councilor... it's like he wants to blame me for everything that goes wrong in the galaxy. And the Salarian... he did nothing, just like he always does."

Kirrahe blinked, as he realized something. "Ah. I see that you've never dealt with Salarians much, Commander."

"Sorry, outside of a few shopkeepers on the Citadel..." she muttered apologetically. "...not really, no. Is it important?"

"Salarians speak on multiple levels." Kirrahe explained. "We often give physical cues that convey social meanings that are important to the content of the conversation. There's a level of actual speech and a level of misdirection, with subtle meaning and vague implications."

Shepard looked so confused that Kirrahe sighed and cut to the chase. "It would take hours to explain all of the nuances to you, but the crux of the matter is that you were given leave, by the Salarian Councilor at least, to deal with the matter as you see fit."

"Wait, the Salarian Councilor?" Shepard was mystified. "He barely talks and when he does, he's vague as Hell and he does that ALL THE TIME."

"...So that the Council can continue to have plausible deniability should your operation... go south, as you humans say. Or if your actions cause... shall we say... greater then desired disruption."

"But they freak out whenever I blow something up or wreck something or unleash a centuries-old extinct species on the galaxy!" Shepard exploded. "Are you saying that they really expect me to do that stuff?"

Kirrahe nodded. "Spectres exist to enforce the will of the Council in situations where direct Council involvement might be undesirable or even prohibitive. I have no doubt that you were made a Spectre specifically because you've demonstrated an ability to... get the job done, without having your hand held."

"Well, that's one way of putting it." Shepard shrugged, now defused.

"A normal solder could never do what is required of a Spectre, because a Spectre must often interpret orders and missions parameters... creatively."

"...and this works for them? So that if I ever screw up enough that they have to deal with me?"

"Another Spectre would be sent to deal with you, as you were sent to deal with Saren. Anything else is just window dressing for the sake of appearances."

"No offense, Kirrahe, but they have to know that this system is going to come back and bite them in the ass, right?"

The Salarian commando shrugged. "This is why I prefer the relaxed pace of the STG. Nobody cares about what I do. In fact, people are encouraged to pay as little attention as possible to what the STG does."

"Thank you for clearing that up for me, Captain." Shepard muttered, with only a touch of sarcasm.

"You're welcome," Kirrahe deadpanned. "I look froward to working with you again someday, especially if you still have that Quarian with you."

"We got lucky there. She happened to be on her pilgrimage, so she was available. I take it that she impressed you."

"What that woman could do with the resources that we often have to work with in the STG... I could increase operational efficiency by twelve, maybe even fifteen, percent."

"I'll let her know you said that. She'll appreciate it."

"Incidentally, Commander, I've taken the liberty of recommending Lieutenant Alenko for the Salarian Star. If he does receive it posthumously, he would be the first non-Salarian to be honored as such. Indeed, it is considered an honor just to make the list of prospective recipients."

Kaiden's words rang in her head.

**_ "I took an oath, ma'am. I... I have to live with my conscience."_**

Shepard sighed. "The Lieutenant was a brave and honorable man."

**_"Are you crazy, Alenko? Sovereign's too close! I can't risk bringing the Normandy back to get you!_**

**_"Well, if you're right, then I guess I'll see you in Hell, ma'am."_**

" ... I regret losing him." Shepard continued, For the most part, she really did miss Alenko.

She'd met many people who talked a good game. But when the bullets started flying, they became everything they claimed to despise. Alenko was refreshing, being one of the precious few she'd met who was willing to back up his words and thoughts with concrete action. It was just annoying that he'd felt forced to show his moral fiber by blowing himself to Kingdom Come back on Virmire.

"A grim reality that we all must face." Kirrahe grunted in agreement.

"Everyone of us is expendable if it accomplishes the mission. You, me, Kaidan..." Shepard paused. "Still, I wish it hadn't gone down that way. I feel like I've lost a brother." Much to her surprise, she found that she really did feel that way.

"The mark of a good leader is that they treat their troops like they are of one blood, of one clan."

The Captain's words seized Shepard and she took a deep breath. "Incidentally, Captain, I found some of your men inside the base. I, uh... I had to..." Shepard paused.

**_"Ma'am, are you sure about this? I mean, just mowing them down, that just seems a little..."_**

**"...no, Lieutenant, it's a lot."**

Kirrahe held up a hand, "Lieutenant Imness managed to make it to our rendezvous area after you released him. His report was... disturbing."

Shepard snorted. "Disturbing? That doesn't even begin to capture what I saw in there, Captain."

"What you did down on Virmire was no small thing, Commander. I do not doubt that the Council would disapprove of most of your choices. Then again... they made you a Spectre so that you could do the jobs that they pretend are unnecessary."

"...and this war isn't over. Saren is going through the Mu Relay, even as we speak. He's searching for Ilos."

"Well, you've only a few days, perhaps a week at best, until he finds it."

"A few days?" Shepard was mystified.

"You mentioned in your report that your Doctor T'soni aided you in translating the visions and locating the planet Ilos." Kirrahe explained. "I can assure you that Saren is considerably more paranoid. I doubt that he sought outside help, so I suspect that he is working out the location of Ilos on his own, with only the Beacon's visions to guide him."

Shepard began giggling. Then she collapsed in outright laughter. "That idiot!" she sputtered. "No wonder it's taken him so long to get to Ilos!"

When Kirrahe frowned quizzically, she explained, "There were two messages in that beacon! And a few dozen worlds between them! If he's working from those, it'll take him a long time to stumble across the right combination!"

It seems that Xander was right again. Sometimes the universe did indeed hand you a gimme.

* * *

Xander and Tali toiled in silence. The Quarian would cast sideways looks at him every few minutes. Eventually, Xander suddenly spun around and activated his omnitool's flashlight, shining the light over his face and giving himself a ghoulish appearance.

"BOO!" he screamed, just as she turned to look at him again.

Tali yelped and staggered backward, managing to not fall on her butt. Of course, she got annoyed at his laughter.

"That never gets old." Xander chuckled.

"The first time you did it it was funny." Tali drawled, in the accented voice that her helmet's translator gave her. "But repetition IS breeding a certain amount of contempt."

"That means we'll soon be entering the stage where it becomes parody, thus making it funny again." Xander quipped.

Now Tali was lost. "What?"

"Comedy has rules, Tali. They're as old as time and as sacred as religion. Repetition in comedy breeds contempt, followed by parody. It'll become funny again, exactly because it's so familiar, so that you laugh at the fact you laughed at it once."

"So if I modify your hardsuits' rebreather so everything smells like refuse, then it will not only be funny the first time, but will eventually be funny because you can't change it back?" Tali asked impishly.

"Absolut- wait, what?" Xander sputtered, cutting himself off in mid-sentence.

"Now this is a aspect of human social interaction that I am looking forward to testing." Tali declared.

"Ohh, a prank war, then?" Xander teased, assuming a mocking version of Sovereign's voice. "I am the vanguard of pranksters; the pinnacle of pranking evolution."

Tali snorted, and Xander marveled anew at how much he enjoyed hearing that sound coming from her specifically. Probably had something to do with the way the helmet modified the sound.

"Tali? Can you bring up that workstation, that you've been using, for a second?" he asked. The feisty Quarian nodded as she walked over to her work station and desktop.

"...and that OSD that Shepard gave you?"

"You mean you're going to-" Tali began.

"Yup. I had an eye-opening conversation with the boss recently, and I realized something." He began tapping away at the station's keyboard. Not looking at her, he continued, "It's none of my business if you hate the the Geth. Like it or not, you've got reasons for that. So I've gotta trust you."

"Xander... why do you..." Tali groped for words. "Why do you think of the Geth as you do? I mean, they're machines. Broken machines, at that."

"Tali, I get it." Xander sighed. "The Geth killed millions of Quarians before driving you guys out of Rannoch."

Then he sighed, tapping several panels on his screen. "But you were trying to wipe them out," he added. "...which you only did, AFTER you couldn't figure out a way to enslave them again."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"That's my point," Xander grunted. "YOU didn't create the Geth to be a slave race. YOU didn't try and wipe them out afterwards. YOU are just trying to survive and make life better for your people. That's all that you've ever been interested in. I was making the same mistake that I accused you of making."

She cocked her head to one side, not getting it. Xander sighed and tried to explain. "I've been thinking of all Quarians as a single unit, instead of thinking of you, Tali. You're my friend and I should trust you. I'm sorry that I took so long to realize that."

He then pointed his omni-tool at the screen and several programs on both started synching. Tali watched as the Geth data began decrypting themselves, and she looked at the terabytes of data, her eyes widening. This wasn't just some junk data that she was examining. She could see command strings and archived command coding going back centuries, a digital representation of the Geth's neuropathic evolution.

"I've seen some pretty screwed up things in my lifetime. My real lifetime, I might add. I've seen what hatred and fear can make people do, and I guess that I just didn't want to be responsible for making the galaxy any darker." Xander sighed.

"But the thing is, the galaxy's plenty dark already. If helping you complete your pilgrimage makes it brighter, then... hey, helping you understand the Geth is a small price to pay, right?" he offered, smiling weakly.

"If I can ask... how old are you? I mean, really?" Tali ventured.

"I'll be two hundred and two this year. My birthday comes right around Armistice Day, it's the only way I remember it anymore."

"Does it hurt when you die?"

"Every time."

"And you could always do what you can do now? Fixing things, and that sort of work?."

"Well, I used to be Mister Fetch-and-Carry, but I eventually worked my way up to Mister Fix-It. But if you mean tearing apart a Mass Effect engine core and rebuilding it? No, that... I only picked that up in the last thirty years or so."

"It's odd..." Tali mused aloud. "...but if I had hundreds of years of extra life, I think that I would've done much the same with it."

"Yeah, well... that would be one reason I'm helping you decrypt your data. Dawn would've liked you. You and her would've been total BFF's; best friends forever."

"You still think of her?"

"All the time. I mean, two hundred and one years? Not a big deal when you're hanging around a guy like Wrex. Dude's like eight hundred, and Liara'll live to be a thousand! But I only had about fifteen years with Dawn."

"What happened to her?"

"A stroke. She went quick, just like her Mom." He leaned against the console, smiling wistfully. "Funny thing, she spent years worrying if she was really her mother's kid or not. And in the end, when the doctor told her that the brain-thing was hereditary, you'd think that he'd given her a pass to Disneyland instead of telling her that she was going to die."

"She died happy then?"

Xander nodded. "A hundred sixty-eight years is a long time to be without the person that you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with. She was the one who convinced me to go back to school. I guess that all the studying was a way to... to keep her alive, I guess."

"Well, I owe her my life several times over, and my people owe her a debt that we will never be able to repay." For a minute, Xander thought that Tali was ready to cry. "You and Shepard... you have no idea what being on this trip has meant to me. What it's meant to be treated... most people see Quarians, and they just want us to go back to our fleet and disappear. But you and Shepard... you treat me like a member of the crew. As an equal."

"Shepard treats you the way she does, because you're valuable to the mission." Xander grinned. "I treat you like I do because... hey, who doesn't need a obsessed gear head in their lives?"

"I'm not obsessed!" she squawked indignantly.

"Says the girl who's been working on a secret project for weeks now!" he teased. "Half the guys think that it's a new weapon and the other half think that it's a... well, never mind what they think! Guys stuck on a boat get weird ideas, especially when there's a hot chick involved."

Tali blushed, or at least Xander assumed that she was blushing.

"What is it with human males? You're all like varren in heat."

"Tali, that's just being mean." Xander reproached her, sounding offended just before deadpanning, "To the varren."

"Besides, Xander, it's not a weapon. At least, not entirely. And it's definitely not... that other thing." Xander was now pretty sure that she was blushing under that helmet of hers. "I saw those repair drones that the Geth use to maintain some of their equipment and got inspired."

She tapped her omni-tool and Xander watched as a solid-light construct flared into being. It was pink and made odd chattering sounds. Tali reached out and petted the thing affectionately. It reacted to her touch by making a purring noise.

At the amused gaze that he directed at her, she added, "I call her Chiktikka. Chiktikka vas Paus."

Now Xander grew curious. "You named your repair drone?"

"Chiktikka does more then repair things," Tali protested. "It also has a combat function."

Xander snorted and turned to the floating construct. "You wouldn't hurt a fly, would you? You cute little- GAHHH!" his sudden exclamation was caused by the drone producing a surging bolt of power that lanced through him.

"What the Hell was that?" he roared, turning on Tali.

"Sorry, she still isn't used to other people yet..." Tali apologized. "Let me just try and turn her off..." and began tapping at her omni-tool.

At that point, the drone stared chasing Xander around engineering, firing stinging bolts of lightning at him.

"Tali, come on!" Xander yelled. "This isn't funny! Get it to stop!"

"I'm trying!" Tali shouted back, trying to keep herself from giggling and thankful that he couldn't see her controlling the drone. She'd eventually let him go, but the vanguard of all pranking had to be taught that she, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, was the pinnacle of pranking evolution.


	25. Lockdown 1

_**Thanks to Reikson for the tireless support **_

* * *

The video came up fuzzy before resolving itself, showing a one-shot of a handsome talking head

"...and welcome back to Citadel News Net, with our continuing coverage of the Normandy's return to the Citadel. I'm Price Sorenson. To my left is the lovely Khalisah bint Sinan al-Jilani of Westerlund News, and to my right is Citadel News Net's own Emily Wong."

Sorenson turned to Emily, saying, "Emily, I promised that we would start with you after the break, so take it away."

"Thank you, Price," Emily replied genially. "I've said it before, and I stand by my words when I say that humanity could have no better representative on the galactic stage than Commander Joan Shepard and the crew of the Normandy."

"...an opinion that's not shared by a lot of viewers back home, Emily," Sorenson chided. "Commander Shepard's colorful war record gives some reason to doubt the wisdom of the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council. Isn't that right, Khalisah?"

"That's right, Price," the tabloid reporter replied. "The folks at home are right to wonder. The Council giving Spectre status to a suspected war criminal... isn't that just their way of telling the galaxy what they really think of humanity?"

"A war criminal? Please," Emily scoffed. "Commander Shepard stood for humanity at a key moment in our history, as a member of the galactic community! And instead of praising her for making the tough calls, you condemn her for her heroism!"

"Heroism? She's been accused of murdering innocent civilians!" Sorenson shouted.

"Those civilians were ruthless pirates and slavers!" Emily yelled back. "Some of whom were undoubtedly involved in the attack on Elysium!"

"The Batarians involved in that raid were criminals and the Hegemony has never denied that their society suffers from the same ills as everyone else!" Sorenson snapped.

Khalisah suddenly butted in. "Did you know that Shepard has a Krogan bounty hunter on her crew? Urdnot Wrex has been connected to several shady jobs over the years, and there's even rumors of his involvement with the Shadow Broker. And yet Shepard tolerates his presence."

"That's your compelling proof?" Emily sneered. "If everyone rumored to be working for the Shadow Broker WAS really working for the Shadow Broker, then half the Systems Alliance Parliament would be on their payroll as well!"

"What about Alexander Harris?" al-Jilani demanded. "There are rumors of him smuggling and trading in restricted goods."

Emily laughed, "I had a wonderful chat with Ambassador Nassana Dantius and that rumor came up in the conversation. When we were finished laughing at the idea that anyone could believe such nonsense, she provided documentation that Sergeant Harris has been working with Serrice University to find a number of lost antiquities. The Matriarch Writings that are the centerpiece of the Dilinaga Concert Hall here on the Citadel?" Emily smirked. "Many of those were found by Mister Harris, discoveries made at great personal risk in a rather hostile part of space."

"I've been to the Concert Hall, that's a beautiful collection." Price added.

Emily turned back to the anchor. "Price, I want to show some video. I think it's cued up, so let's get a look at your dangerous war criminal in action."

The scene fuzzed up briefly before showing an image of several figures in dark outfits.

Emily explained in a voice-over, "This is from the kidnapping of Martin Burns, Chairman of the Alliance's Transhuman Studies Subcommittee, by biotic terrorists a few months ago."

"Be fair, Emily," Khalisah challenged. "We all know that sending in Council stormtroopers was the least they could do to forestall an attack that was undoubtedly caused by the highly-flawed shared information that causes human biotics to suffer and die needlessly. "

Suddenly, gunshots could be heard, accompanied by muzzle flashes. Several forms moved though the shadows, howls of pain followed by silence before several repeated shouts of "Clear!" being heard.

One of the figures stood up. Even before she removed her helmet, the red stripe down her right arm and the N7 patch over the right breast clearly identified this as Commander Shepard, and she could be seen looking around.

"And there's your war criminal taking down a terrorist threat." Emily Wong drawled sarcastically. "Do I need to play the section where she and Lieutenant Alenko negotiate a peaceful solution to the affair? Even the military are amazed that she was able to pull it off."

Price looked into the camera. "Here at CNN, we would like to take this opportunity to extend condolences to the family of the Lieutenant who was recently killed in action."

"Another victim of the Butcher of Torfan." Khalisah al-Jilani said, smiling in condescension. "Price, I know Emily can't see it because she's got stars in her eyes, but surely you can. Commander Shepard is dangerous not just because of her background but because she is now shilling for the council."

"Of course, Shepard's dangerous!" Emily barked. "To the enemies of galactic peace!"

"In Shepard's defense," Price soothed. "...she managed to secure the colony of Feros with very few civilian casualties."

"And what about Terra Nova?" Emily snapped. "She saves the entire colony from Balak's ill-fated attempt to drop an asteroid on the planet! A *bleep* asteroid!"

"Let's talk about Terra Nova then, Emily," al-Jilani snarled. "Should we really be surprised that the person responsible for the horrors of Torfan participated in a counter-insurgency operation involving killing Batarians?"

"At the conclusion of which, she took Balak in ALIVE?"

"Balak was one of the few that she left alive, Emily," Price sighed. "And he had a few dozen broken bones."

"A fact that the Hegemony never fails to mention in their propaganda attacks on the Alliance." Khalisah said, smirking.

"If we're talking propaganda, then let's talk about Binary-Helix." Emily spat.

Khalisah snorted, "A clear attack by a Council Spectre on Alliance interests. If this had been done by anyone except the First Human Spectre, wouldn't we be using stronger language? Maybe even demanding reparations to Binary Helix?"

"Come on, al-Jilani," Emily snorted, rolling her eyes. "Everybody knows what kind of work happens at Noveria. If BH has research facilities there, then it can only be to engage in the kind of activities that would be illegal anywhere else, INCLUDING Earth." she said coolly.

"A tad melodramatic, don't you think, Emily?" Khalisah snapped. "The restrictions that the Council places on humanity's scientific and technical progress forces us into making these kinds of concessions. By the way, let's have another look at your so-called hero in action. Could we rewind to one-fifteen?" The video of the battle fuzzed before resolving to a point during the battle.

"Notice that they're using modded rounds," the Westerlund News reporter lectured. "I believe that those are Inferno rounds, highly illegal in many parts of Citadel space."

"Definitely for civilians, al-Jilani!" Emily snarled. "They're illegal for civilians! Military units are allowed to use rounds like that!"

"In combat! Not against civilian targets, which these people clearly were!" al-Jilani snapped back. "One misplaced shot and Chairman Burns could've been killed!"

Price Sorenson smiled insincerely. "Ladies, ladies... let's keep it civil." he said condescendingly. Suddenly his hand went to his earpiece. "Ladies, the Normandy has touched down. I believe they re disembarking now... let's go live."

The scene fuzzed again. Video footage, obviously being shot through a float-cam's lens, showed the main hallway leading from the Normandy's docking cradle.

Price narrated for the viewers. "They appear to have a casket. I'm not sure this might be Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko... no, I'm being told that this is actually Serviceman Reggie Hobbs, lost on the same mission as the Lieutenant. They appear to be meeting a delegation of Alliance soldiers from the SSV Madrid."

Emily piped up. "If this is crew from the Madrid, then the man out in front is probably Coleman Hobbs, Reginald's brother."

Khalisah made a sympathetic sound. "One can only wonder what the XO's feeling. Seeing that deadly reputation striking so close to home. His poor brother, another victim of Commander Shepard's reckless indifference to life."

Shepard could be seen stepping forward, saluting Coleman sharply before extending her hand. Coleman looked at it briefly before taking it firmly in hand. They could be seen exchanging words.

Subtitles began scrolling along the bottom of the screen.

Price's voiceover continued. "Due to all of the ambient noise on the docking cradle and the poor sound filters, we're going to have to rely on VI-assisted captioning for the folks at home."

Hobbs: ...the (expletive deleted) happened out there Shepard?

Shepard: Slavers; some (expletive deleted) outfit out of Artemus Tau. Hobbs took a bad hit.

Hobbs: I hope you got the (expletive deleted).

Shepard: Double tap, a lot cleaner than the (expletive deleted) deserved.

Hobbs: What was he playing at? I told him he was no (expletive deleted) hero.

Shepard: All due respect, you're wrong. He was a hero. Tali?

A Quarian moved up to stand by the Commander.

Quarian Civilian: Translation unavailable

Price piped up, "Just to explain for those watching at home, the imaging software reads lips and since Quarians wear full-body exosuits... the software can't get a good read on their words."

Hobbs: Thank you, Miss Zorah. Reg wrote a lot about you... I think he had a bit of a crush. Said you were one of the smartest techs he'd ever served with.

Quarian Civilian: Translation unavailable

The Quarian held out a small data-pad. Coleman triggered it and a VI sprang to life, featuring an image of Reggie Hobbs. Coleman could be seen shuddering.

Hobbs: You encoded his letters? But... how did you get the voice-print?

Quarian Civilian: Translation unavailable

Shepard: They used to do way more complex versions of this sort of thing, back on their homeworld of Rannoch... before the Geth destroyed them, anyway. It is just based on his letters home, right?

Quarian Civilian: Translation unavailable

Hobbs: Thank you, Miss Zorah, I... Shepard, he was so proud to serve on the Normandy.

Shepard: I'm going to get the (expletive deleted) that did this, you have my word.

Hobbs nodded and stepped back to salute sharply again.

Shepard did likewise. A loud shout from the Spectre had the squad escorting Hobbs come smartly to attention. They moved the casket forward and the crew from the Madrid took charge of it, saluting them in return.

Price came on the line. "An emotional moment. Madrid XO Coleman Hobbs and the Quarian Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, identified as one of the several non-human specialists aboard the Normandy, assisting with Shepard's current mission."

Emily wiped a tear from her eye. "That was beautiful. Serviceman Hobbs was obviously a hero. That, Khalisah, is what being around your dangerously-unstable war criminal brings out in people; selfless acts of heroism and courage."

"That's not all it brings out, as I think you'll be seeing in just few moments" Khalisah said with a smirk.

The shot shifted to the Council Chamber. Oddly, unlike before, there was clear sound as well as video.

"Congratulations, Shepard. The Council is finally taking some real action against Saren." Udina was loudly crowing.

Again, subtitling identified every one in the room including the three councilors.

"Indeed," Tevos replied. "If Saren is foolish enough to attack the Citadel as you believe, then we will be ready and waiting for him." The asari seemed incredibly proud of this development.

"Patrols are stationed at every mass relay linking Citadel Space to the Terminus." Councilor Valern said confidence made the turian's mandibles flare.

"How many ships are being sent to Ilos?" Shepard asked.

The Salarian blinked, "Ilos is only accessible through the Mu Relay in the Terminus Systems," Councilor Ithin reminded her calmly ... maybe a little too calmly.

Shepard was obviously annoyed, but Xander just exploded. "A blockade?" he roared, making Tevos flinch very slightly. "Are you serious? Did you NOT see the size of Sovereign? He's going to bulldoze though your fleets like they're not even there!"

"The Citadel Fleet will have the region secured," the Salarian Councilor said dispassionately. "Saren can do nothing if the Relays are locked down."

"And going into the Terminus can only lead to full-scale war," Councilor Valern added, now sneering at Xander. "We have the situation under control."

Xander palmed his face in exasperation. "This phrase you use... under control..." he sneered. Then his voice took on a vaguely Spanish accent as he then said, "I do not think that it means what YOU think it means."

"One ship going into the Terminus Systems is not going to start a war," Shepard insisted. "I can be discreet."

The Turian Councilor chuckled cruelly. "You?" he sneered. "A woman who unleashed the rachni upon the galaxy again? Destroyed a unique alien plant species? Detonated a nuclear device on Virmire, taking one of your own men out with it? And you have the gall to say you are discreet?"

"If we don't go to Ilos, then every man, woman, and child in the galaxy is dead!" Shepard snarled coldly. "The trillions of lives, that YOU claim to be so concerned about, will be snuffed out."

The Turian Councilor ignored her and turned to Udina. "Ambassador Udina, I sense that Commander Shepard and her crew are unwilling to let this go."

"Commander, you're starting to become more trouble than you're worth," Udina growled. "Your insubordination has become intolerable as well. I've taken the liberty of locking down the Normandy's primary systems until further notice. You're grounded."

"I say that an assessment of her mental state is long overdue," Valern sneered, "if she let herself be so swayed by Saren's manipulations..."

The video froze.

Shepard looked down at Joker. "I was there, Joker. I saw all of this. What was so important about it?"

Joker smirked. "What with Udina screwing you over, I guess you missed it." At Shepard's glare, he hurried on. "Miss al-Jilani's hover cam is way better quality than a standard news cam drones used by CNN. That's why hers had full audio."

Shepard suddenly felt something click. But Joker kept talking. "The Council chambers are off-limits to the press and the media when the Council's in session, especially if they are talking Spectre business. If her cam was in the Council Chambers, then the only way that it could've happen would be with C-Sec's involvement; she knew it was coming."

Liara entered the comm room. "Shepard, I just heard that they grounded you and the Normandy. Are they insane?"

"Udina couldn't wait to stab me in the back and if Joker's right, then the fix was in before we even reached the Citadel." Shepard snarled bitterly.

"How do we play this, boss?" Xander asked. "Are we doing mischief, 'cuz I love mischief. Can I come? Can I, please? I'll be ever so good."

"You're going to see Emily Wong and, if you could fit it into your busy schedule, maybe Nassana Dantius." Shepard snorted, amusing herself with the highly-exaggerated crestfallen expression that Xander affected. "After all, I think you owe her. Seeing as she helped get you bona-fide credentials for your... archeology." she used finger quotes as she said that last word.

Xander pretended to be offended. "Hey, what's with the finger quotes? And for my legitimate hobby no less? That's not fair. I'm a professional! Well, an accredited professional NOW."

Liara snorted. "Had I known that all it took to become an archaeologist was a quick chat with a morally suspect Ambassador, then I wouldn't have wasted so much time in school," she said dryly.

"Well, it's a good thing you DID go to school, Doc," Xander riposted sarcastically. "Seeing as how all that book-learning is the reason that we might still beat Saren to the Conduit." Then turning to Shepard, he then asked, "What are you doing then, boss?"

Shepard smiled. "I'm going to have a chat with Captain Anderson. He wants to meet me in Flux. Maybe he thinks that we can do something about this mess, and I've learned never to doubt him."

"May I come along?" Liara asked. "I was too intimidated by him to meet him before."

"You never have to be scared of anything when you're with me, Doc." Shepard replied, slinging an arm around the young Asari's shoulders before turning to address the rest of the team. "Someone LET al-Jilani into the Council Chambers. Garrus, that one's yours. Tali, think you can hack a VI assistant?"

"Please," the little Quarian scoffed. "Give a girl something hard to do, Commander."

"Good, I knew I could count on you. Then al-Jilani's yours."

Turning to the others, she barked, "All right, people! We have our assignments! Time to show people what happens when they mess with this crew! No; what happens when they mess with this family!"

A loud cheer rattled her teeth very briefly before the Normandy's crew broke up for their respective assignments.


	26. Lockdown 2

_**Thanks to Reikson for the help and advice and support,**_

*******************************************************************************

Xander found Emily Wong prowling Zakera Ward. He'd made his meet-and-greet with Nassana as quick as possible, yet another Asari who looked at him in a weird fashion, and not good weird like Liara did.

T'soni was pleasant about her curiosity. At worst, she made him feel like he was David Copperfield and she was politely sitting through the card tricks and sleight-of-hand, so that he'd walk through the Great Wall of China or make the Statue of Liberty disappear or something.

Of course, some of that was because he could actually speak Thessian... like a native, or so he had been told. The challenge wasn't speaking the language. The challenge was not speaking in alien languages while around people who might react badly. He didn't need a universal translator. Plus, he'd often start speaking the Turian or Krogan native languages if he wasn't paying attention. The only languages that he couldn't replicate were ones requiring scent glands, like the Elcor, or the bio-luminescence common to the Hanar.

And after two hundred years of running around, training, and studying, he was a tad bit easier on the eyes than he had been back in the bad old days of Sunnyhell. He wasn't super-cut, like the kids in those ridiculous movies about vampires and werewolves as angst-ridden teens, but he looked pretty respectable for a man just over two hundred years old.

Still... what was with the weird looks he got from some Asari?

No, this was a odd sort of weird. A weird that was more akin to a... a dark hunger. A look that was more unfriendly than what he was used to. He'd often noticed that Asari, in general, occasionally reacted strangely to him. Now that he thought about it; the older an Asari was, the more pronounced their reaction would be towards him.

After his encounter with Benezia, Xander had begun to wonder if Asari in general could sense the extra years that he had and, more importantly, the reason for those extra years.

He noticed Emily Wong talking to a woman in a Marine dress uniform... someone that he actually recognized.

"Second Lieutenant Marie Durand?" he shouted. "How the hell are you?" he greeted the woman, hugging her.

"Sergeant Harris," the infantry unit commander greeted him, sticking out a hand to shake. "It's been a while. I'd hoped we might run into each other."

"You know the Survivor of Akuze?" Wong asked.

"I know him as more than that, Miss Wong. He and that Commander of his dropped into Hell and pulled our asses out." Then she twigged to something, and turned to Xander. "Where IS Commander Shepard, anyway?"

"Meeting with Captain Anderson. Technically, it's a debrief, but I noticed that she and Doctor T'soni seemed a little too jumpy for this to be a standard meet-and-greet, if you get my meaning." He spun quickly to point at Emily, "I'll deny I said anything about it if you ask me officially."

"Humanity's Greatest Hero finds love after a lifetime of tragedy," Emily whined. "Give me a couple of sound-bites, I could really spin this. They eat it up back home."

"This would be the same THEY who want to run us out of the Citadel on a rail, right?"

"You spend too much time watching al-Jilani on Westerlund News," Emily said dismissively. "That crap rots your brain. Besides, do I look like that muckraking tramp?"

"No," Xander replied, "...besides, you fill a dress a lot better than she ever could." He had turned back to Marie so fast that he didn't notice the flush of red that filled Emily Wong's face.

"So, Durand, how's it going? Your guys make it back okay?"

"Just enjoying a little R&R before we head back to Arcturus for a more formal debrief," she grinned. "This Cerberus thing has everyone at Alliance High Commands up in a bunch, and not in a good way, either."

"This would be Cerberus, as in the Illusive Empire, the terrorist organization, THAT Cerberus?" Emily asked, mentally taking notes.

"Yeah," Durand nodded. "My team was manning a listening post in the Styx Theta cluster, checking for pirate activity and the like. Suddenly, these bug things show up. overrunning our position and taking us down one by one. Then Shepard shows up out of the blue and she brings hurt on those things like I ain't never seen it been brought before."

Her voice never wavered from its all-business tone. "At first, I thought these things were some weird-ass local species that the initial scans missed. Turns out they landed on-planet after some automated supply ship dropped them off. Goddamn Cerberus, they're responsible for monsters killing a ton of good guys. Good soldiers who deserved better then to end up as bug chow. Or whatever it is those things do." Durand replied bitterly.

"Allegedly, Marie, allegedly you always want to use words like allegedly when making statements in front of the ess-pry."

"Ethay embermay ofway ethay esspray ancay eakspay uentflay igpay atinlay, you know." Emily butted in, smirking. "Pig Latin, Esperanto... you'd be surprised what knowing a few old Earth languages can do for a journalist's career."

Xander sighed. "Okay, fine. Cerberus may have played a role in what happened to Durand's Platoon."

"...you're still on the job, aren't you?" Emily exclaimed. "The Council clipped Shepard's wings and she's STILL going to fight the good fight?"

Xander paused, looking at the Second Lieutenant. "Permission to speak freely, Tech Sarge?" Durand muttered. "Feel Free, you won't hear me telling tales out of school."

"Ms. Wong, how did al-Jilani get a float-cam into the Council Chambers without anyone knowing?"

"That would be Kolnar Prellnec, al-Jilani's one-Turian fanclub," Emily grinned. "He has a weakness for human girls that she ruthlessly exploits whenever she wants to get close to C-Sec activities."

"Say what?" Xander squawked. "al-Jilani has a human fetishist fanboy and Executor Pain-in-the-Ass doesn't have a problem with that scenario?" he demanded.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Harris. al-Jilani's a bitch, but she isn't stupid. It's all smoke and no fire with that one."

"...and Pallin's cool with his boy getting played like a harp, why?"

"That's 'cause al-Jilani lives to make Shepard look bad, and Pallin's hard-on for the Spectres means that he'd love to make them look bad. Because, lately, C-Sec has been looking bad, thanks in no small part to yours truly..." Emily gestured grandly to herself, smiling. "...who likes to make Shepard look good at the expense of C-Sec. Not deliberately, mind you, but stuff happens."

"So Pallin's out to get boss-lady and he's using al-Jilani. She doesn't mind because she can embarrass the Council, no matter which way things play out."

"You sound like you've got some experience in dealing with things like this." Durand mused aloud.

As nice as Marie and Emily were, Xander didn't think that telling either of them about The New Watcher's Council or the prominent role he'd played in that organization was a particularly good idea. Assuming that either of them even believed such a tale he'd have to then explain how he could be part of a organization officially declared a global terrorist group before they vanished two centuries ago.

"Tech Sarge, if you and the Commander are making a play..." Durand ventured. "...you know that me and the Fourteenth have your back, no matter what."

"Boss-lady would appreciate hearing that, Marie, but..." His comm signaled and he answered. Marie could only hear his half to the conversation, but it was still telling nonetheless.

"Harris, go ahead," Xander said, all business.

Then he perked up. "Oh, hey, boss-lady, what's going on?"

"Conrad? You mean-" A quizzical frown crossed his face.

Then his face shifted to light interest. "Really? How'd that go?"

"Really?" His skepticism all but deadpan. "A Spectre?"

Now he was outright derisive, sneering, "What planet was HE on, that he thought THAT would be a good idea?"

A brief pause for her response, before asking, "So you turned him down gently, right?"

"Really?" Now he got exasperated.

Exasperation quickly became alarm. "In the face?"

"You don't think that was maybe a little extreme?" he tried, a slight amount of know-it-all condescension on his voice.

Then he shrugged. "Yeah, I'll admit that's a valid point."

"Well, as amusing as it may be to think about Conrad crying and wetting himself in fear of you..." he drawled, grinning in spite of himself. "...how's about you tell me how that meeting with Anderson went?"

Her response had him quirking an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Wow, the old man must really like living dangerously," he quipped.

Turning towards Emily, he replied, "I'm actually with her right now."

Some instructions later, he added, "I'll ask and get back to you."

Xander disconnected the comm and turned to look at Emily speculatively.

Emily was just experienced enough to know the sight of a man about to ask a huge favor from her.

"Emily, that piece you were doing on Traffic Controller conditions... how far along are you?"

"The writing's done. I was hoping that I could talk you into retrieving that bug for me."

"Actually, I wanted to know what carrier frequency it uses."

"It can't access the traffic net, I made sure of that."

"...which implies that it COULD access the traffic net if it was hacked. Now, if that's just a software issue, then we got it made in the shade. If it's a hardware feature, then someone's gotta be standing in Citadel Control and hacking away that thing." Tapping away at his omnitool, he missed the looks that Emily and Lieutenant Durand were giving each other.

"When all Hell breaks loose, the last place you want to be is in Citadel Control," he continued. "So I'm hoping that all we'll have to do is loop a signal BACK through the bug that alters the carrier frequency just enough so that the bug WILL interfere with operations in Citadel Control."

"For how long?" Emily asked, suspicious. "What's this about?"

"Em, you're twenty-four hours away from writing the second-biggest story of your career."

Emily had a feeling that she already knew where this was going, but... "What's the biggest story of my career?"

"How Commander Shepard survived stealing the Normandy and managing to defeat Saren and his armies."

Emily folded her arms. "I want an exclusive interview with Normandy's heroic Commanding Officer AND the person who captured her heart."

"Well, I'm not even sure that Doctor T'soni would agree to something like that."

"Liara T'soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia? The one who lead the Geth assault on Noveria?" Emily sputtered. Then she got a calculating look on her face. "Star-crossed lovers..." she mumbled. "...this just gets better and better."

"They've barely kissed, Emily." Xander sighed in exasperation.

"Who are you trying to kid, Harris?" the young reporter scoffed. "That woman's a warrior if I've ever seen one. And if there's one thing that warriors know how to do, it's finding the perfect moment to strike."

* * *

Shepard walked across the Presidium promenade, with Liara's hand clutched in hers. She had been pensive ever since their meeting with Anderson, and she found Liara's warm presence soothing.

"Tell me what you're thinking." T'soni begged softly.

"I'll be honest, Liara. I'm thinking that I should leave you here," Shepard sighed. "This... what I'm going to do tomorrow... it's big. People could get hurt, a lot of people." Leaning up against a nearby wall, she hugged her arms, hating how she suddenly felt vulnerable. "You could get hurt, and that's not something I'd want on my conscience; knowing that I dragged you along into danger."

Liara stopped and stepped in close, shoving her face right in Shepard's field of view. "Joan Lisbon Shepard, don't you dare. Don't. You. Dare. You did not drag me anywhere. I've chosen to come along with you. I've chosen to fight, and I think that I've earned my place on the Normandy's crew. I have the right to be there when you finally make Saren pay for all that he's done."

"Liara, this isn't a MAKO drop on some uncharted rock in the ass-end of space featuring a couple of mercs in bargain-basement armor," Shepard sighed. "Saren will come at us with everything he's got. This time, he won't stop till one of us is dead."

"He won't stop, or YOU won't stop?" Liara asked her, quirking a brow ridge.

"Fine," Shepard huffed. "...it's going to go down between me and him and-"

"Then I will fight and I WILL be with you to the end," Liara interrupted her firmly. "Shepard, you think that you can't live with putting me in danger. But I cannot live, knowing that I let you go off into danger and did nothing to shield you from it."

"Liara, I'm a damn Marine," Shepard sighed. "I think that I can soak up a little enemy fire."

"Besides, this planet will be... as you humans say, lousy with Prothean artifacts, architecture, data disks, and Goddess knows what else," Liara tried another tack. "Most Asari have to wait almost a thousand years to achieve their life's work. But look at what I've accomplished in the few months that we've been together."

"This isn't a pleasure trip, Liara," Shepard sighed.

"I'm coming with you."

"I could formally put you off the ship."

"And I could stow away."

"I could clap you in irons and have you hauled off to the brig."

"I've never done that sort of thing before, but if YOU enjoy it then I'm game." Liara deadpanned.

Shepard grimaced at her words. "Okay, new rule; you do not hang out with Xander anymore." She said, smirking in spite of herself.

"I'll have you know that I got that one from Joker," Liara quipped, smiling back at Shepard. "Some of his extranet bookmarks are... truly enlightening."

Shepard threw up her hands. "God, I remember the meek and mild scientist who'd do whatever I said, whenever I said it."

"Then you have no one to blame but yourself," Liara asserted, crossing her arms. "Everything that I've become, I owe to your example."

Shepard gathered Liara up in her arms, hugging her as their foreheads touched.

"As Xander says, I have issues, Doc," the brunette soldier muttered softly. "Hell, my issues have issues."

"I've spent the last fifty years in the ass-end of the galaxy, sifting through dirt and ruins just so I could show my mother and her cronies that she wasn't the boss of me," Liara replied, sighing happily. "Trust me when I say that you're not the only one with issues, Shepard."

"How would this even work?" Shepard wondered. "I mean, it's not like I'm a biotic. I can't do that freaky black-eye thing that you girls do."

Liara rolled her eyes in spite of herself. "When it is time to do the 'freaky-black-eyed thing', I'll handle it. All you have to do is what comes naturally. Follow your instincts."

"Follow my instincts, huh?" Shepard whispered, her breath sending ripples of sensation across the young Asari's cheek and making her close her eyes.

"Yes, follow... I mean..." she stumbled over her own words.

"What's the matter, Doctor T'soni?" Shepard teased. "You seem a little flustered." The Butcher of Torfan breathed gently into Liara's ear, before teasing it with a gentle kiss and just the smallest caress of her tongue.

"Goddess take you, Shepard," Liara groaned. "You can't tease me like that, it's not fair."

"Haven't you heard the stories, Liara? I'm Commander Shepard, and there's nothing that I can't do if I really want to." She turned them around to pin Liara up against the wall before forcefully kissing the young Asari on the mouth. A few blissful moments existed between the two of them, in which the only thing that either of them knew was little more than a French kiss, complete with tongues. They might have felt the Citadel slowly rotating beneath their feet, but...

When they parted, a slightly dizzy Shepard whispered softly, "Not bad for a hundred-six year-old virgin."

"Imagine how good I'll be when we aren't standing in the middle of the Presidium." Liara replied breathlessly, trying to recover herself.

"I've been doing nothing but imagining how good it'll be, for a long time now," Shepard muttered quietly. "So far, it's exceeded my wildest imagination."

Liara smiled softly, adding, "...and you've seen nothing yet."*


	27. Lockdown 3

**AN- Thanks to Reikson for the help, support and assistance. **

"I have no idea why I'm even doing this." Ashley grumbled as she sipped her drink. She was sitting at a darkened table in Flux, Garrus sitting across from her.

"I'm only playing a hunch, Williams," Garrus sighed, gulping down some dextro-amino drink with a name that she couldn't pronounce. "...but I think that, regardless of how pissed-off you are about Virmire, I doubt that you really think she's a ruthless and delusional war criminal."

"Look, Garrus, I get that 'Need-to-Know' is a part of our lives..." Ashley tried to defend her position. "...but we're a team. We have to be able to depend on each other, but she's kept things from us. Are you really that cool about that?"

The unconventional Turian just shrugged. "She's never denied that she's hidden things from you. She just feels that it's her call as Mission Commander. I assume that you disagree?"

"Garrus, that's different." Ashley protested weakly.

"No, it's not," he disagreed. "People react to the truth in different ways, and I can guarantee that not every person is as pleasant as the Normandy's crew, in regards to finding out that you're the granddaughter of the infamous General Williams."

Ashley snorted as she took another sip of her drink. "Okay, fine, people are stupid. But WE aren't people, Garrus." At his quirked brow ridge, she explained. "We're in the same squad. We're supposed to be on the same side, but we really aren't; it's Shepard, and her magic soldier Harris, saving the galaxy."

Sitting back in her chair, she sighed as she crossed her arms. "And if the rest of us get caught in the crossfire..." she snorted. "Hell, tough shit on us, right?"

"You want to know what I think really bothers you, Ashley?" Garrus drawled. "I think that you hate what it means, if they're right. You hate that, deep down, you know how evil and stupid people can be."

Ashley sighed, not really wanting to hear the Turian's words. "You think that you deserve their trust, but you know trust and respect are earned. Deep down inside, you wonder; what if they look at you and think that they can't trust you, and that's why they kept it a secret?"

"I got way too much noise in my head over this, anyway..." Ashley sighed. "How we gonna do this?"

"I want to talk to Chellick before we do anything else." The former C-Sec officer said noncommittally.

Garrus and Ash left Flux, only to find the local part of the Wards abuzz with loud and raucous shouting. Several people holding signs and yelling.

"Remember Shanxi!"

"No Blood For Aliens!"

Garrus ignored them and instead focused on a beige-skinned Turian, with white lines running along his mandibles and down his chin, in a C-Sec uniform.

"Chellick?" Vakarian shouted, trying to make himself heard over the noise.

Chellick turned and his mandibles twitched in a way that Ashley would've sworn meant that he'd swallowed something foul tasting.

"Vakarian..." Chellick drawled. "...the last person I wanted to see today."

"Answer my questions, then," Garrus sneered. "I was looking forward to this, as much as you."

"Do we have to do this in front of her?" Chellick grumbled, looking at Ashley.

Garrus ignored him. "A protest on the Wards... I'm guessing Pallin's not happy about this."

"When is Pallin ever happy," Chellick whined, "There's more and more idiots every spirits-cursed day; this one wants the concessions promised to that one, but that one has promised to surrender territory, but only if the other one pays them a portion of riches obtained. Whenever the Council can't be bothered to deal with it, they end up as C-sec's problem. They moved this one down here from the Presidium, Great for the barefaces in the Embassy Suites, not so good for us."

"What are they whining about?" Ashley asked, looking at the group.

"They're rallying to support some human politician named Saracino," Chellick explained, waving a claw towards the yelling sign-bearers. "He's campaigning for some Alliance Parliament seat, 'cept his message of empowerment seems to play to race politics... hardly surprising, really. Seems that's what everybody goes with, these days. They're Terra Firma."

"Terra Firma?" Ashley spat, disgusted. "Bunch of bigots and racists in expensive suits complaining about aliens doing the jobs that they wouldn't want to do in the first place?"

"Yes, fine examples of your people." Chellick sneered.

"As if Pallin doesn't have similar views." Garrus snapped. "Everybody knows he has a varren on his leg about Humans."

"He thinks they're too pushy, which they are." Chellick retorted.

"Compared to what?" Ashley snorted. "I mean, who decides when and how we get our piece of the pie? You? Pallin? Or should we trust the wisdom of the three idiots who manged to ignore Saren's crimes until their own asses were on the hot seat?"

Chellick made a disgusted sound. "You're here about the human, al-Jilani, aren't you? You want to know about the Council Chamber footage."

Garrus crossed his arms. "al-Jilani managed to smuggle a hover-cam past the detectors." His flanged voice deepened, betraying the depths of his irritation. "That shoud be impossible without C-Sec involvement, which ultimately means Pallin."

"Look," Chellick groaned. "Pallin's got a varren up his ass about how much heat C-Sec's been taking, ever since your Human Spectre friend came along."

"What does Shepard have to do with this?" Garrus asked, suspicious.

"Did you see Emily Wong's report on Fist? 'Cause Pallin did." Chellick snarled. "Basically, she said that C-Sec sat idle while your friend Shepard closed a half-dozen outstanding cases, including MY illegal mod case."

"Pallin's jealous of Shepard's press?" Ashley sputtered in disbelief.

"Fist was an annoyance," Chellick explained. "We were building a case against him, but these things take time. Then your Spectre friend comes along and guns him down and pretty much stumbled ass-backwards into enough evidence to link him to a chunk of our outstandings."

"Pallin closed the case against Saren, what was Shepard supposed to do?" Garrus grumped.

"Pallin was pressured by the Council to close the case. Then that barefaced embarrassment, Valern," here, Chellick spit a loogie into a nearby trash can before talking again. "...well, Valern turns around and makes like he didn't have anything to do with your aborted case, when the Quarian's evidence pops up."

"So, Pallin's using al-Jilani to take his frustrations out on Shepard and the Spectres." Garrus deduced. Then he turned to Chellick, glaring at the other Turian with suspicion. "You already knew about all this, didn't you?"

Chellick simply whistled a wordless string of notes that made Garrus twitch visibly. "Pallin SHOULD be investigating al-Jilani, pulling the security records from the Council Chambers to see who let her in, but he's not doing either." Vakarian glared thoughtfully, "No matter how you look at it, it's suspicious."

"Pallin's feeling like his balls fell off." Ashley added, sneering at the politics miring such a dire situation. "He makes trouble for Shepard, and maybe he gets his balls back."

"That's yet another human saying that I pray to never get an explanation for." Chellick sighed, turning his gaze to the Terra Firma protesters again.

But Garrus only nodded. "That tells us why Pallin pressed the case. But why work through Kolnar? What's his connection to this?"

"al-Jilani's been trying to find an in with C-Sec," Chellick replied absently. "Pallin ignored her until Emily Wong embarrassed him. He's not al-Jilani's biggest fan, but still supports her somewhat because-"

Garrus interrupted him, "...because she talks trash about Shepard. I'm thinking that Kolnar has a human fetish. I guess that he hopes that by doing enough favors for her, she'll become his best friend "

"You know this whole thing will end badly, Chellick," Ashley warned the C-Sec cop. "Shepard doesn't leave missions half-done, and that woman's a walking, talking, Scorched-Earth policy."

"Don't I know it," Chellick grumbled, scratching a brow ridge. "But you know that if she does anything to defy the Council, then it'll just prove everything that al-Jilani says."

"Are you really going to give US a lecture on procedure?" Garrus drawled condescendingly. "Especially when you and Pallin allowed a fellow officer to disgrace his position, just to soothe Pallin's vanity?"

"You used to care about the job," Chellick pointed out. "Your father did, anyway."

"My father cared about Justice," Garrus snapped. "Do things right or don't do them at all; I had to hear my father say that, plenty of times while growing up."

Crossing his arms, the former C-Sec officer glared at Chellick, "Now, Kolnar disgraces himself so that a raving propagandist can humiliate the Council, and all with Pallin's permission. What, in any of this, seems right to you, Chellick?"

"Pallin was looking out for C-Sec-" Chellick began, but was cut off.

"The C-Sec that my father served in? It's gone; dead." Garrus barked, interrupting his former coworker. "C-Sec used to be an organization to be proud of, even more so than the Spectres. Now, it's all about rules and procedure. Now we don't stop crime, or help people anymore, we file reports about it. It's all about covering our ass, not risking it."

"Spirits, you're starting to sound like her." Chellick groaned at the real bitter cynicism in Garrus' voice.

For his part, Garrus just sighed. "Chellick, I've done more good in the last few months while riding around the galaxy with Shepard than anything that I ever did at C-Sec."

Chellick only frowned slightly at Garrus' explanation. "If that's what you really think, then maybe you don't belong in C-Sec. Maybe you never did."

"Considering what you and Pallin have turned, what my father helped to build, into... whatever C-Sec is now?" Garrus grumbled. "I wonder if either of you belong in C-Sec anymore."

Garrus stomped away, Ashley rushing to catch up with him. When she finally caught up with him, he was looking out a window. The Destiny Ascension could be seen cruising slowly past, and people nearby were pointing at the dreadnought in amazement.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think you were right to call his useless ass out." Ashley tried.

"Thanks, Williams," Garrus sighed. Then he changed the subject. "You know that I know about what you said, right? Back when I first came aboard? I heard a couple of servicemen talking."

"Look, Garrus, I barely knew you back then..." Ashley tried to explain, but Garrus cut her off.

"I went to Shepard about that," Garrus drawled, absently rubbing his fringe. "I asked her why you didn't come talk to me, let me defend myself."

Turning to Ashley, the tall Turian rumbled, "Shepard told me that if I wanted you to respect me, then I'd have to earn it. She trusted that, in time, you'd change your mind and make the right call. I suggested that maybe I shouldn't go on missions with you. You know what she tells me?"

"This is a multilateral mission, and you have to learn to work together." They chorused, grinning at each other.

Garrus sat down on a nearby windowsill, Ashley joining him only seconds later. "Look, Williams, "I know that you think I'm blind to what Shepard is, and what she's capable of doing," Garrus sighed. "But I'm not blind, Ashley. I get that you're pissed off with Shepard and Xander, but..."

Turning to look at the other Wards of the Citadel, he seemed to sag. "Working here on the Citadel, with idiots like Chellick... sometimes I felt ashamed of myself. Like I was looking the other way and hiding behind rules, while crimes happened and people needed me."

Scratching a mandible, he added, "Now, with Shepard... I don't just sit back, filing reports about bad guys. No, I track them down and take them out, no matter what the cost. I like that feeling and I don't want to let that go. I won't."

He looked at her, "If you can honestly look at the good that we've done since signing on with her, and then say that it doesn't mean anything to you, then... by all means, leave." He finalized, gesturing impatiently and waving his hand dismissively in the general direction of the Normandy's berth.

Looking out the window again, Garrus stared out at the other Wards. After a minute or so, he said, "But I'm staying to see this through; do things right or don't do them at all and all that. This fight against Saren..."

He seemed uncharacteristically pensive as he continued to look out at the other Wards. "What we're doing... trying to save the galaxy, that's the right thing to do. Everything else, including whatever secrets that Xander might have... that's just a distraction."

Finally, he stood up and caught a cab. Ashley went with him, heading for the Normandy and leaving Chellick alone with his thoughts. The beige-skinned Turian had heard the whole conversation, and he found himself lost in thought. A few minutes later, having had an epiphany and making a momentous decision, he made a comm call.

"Bailey, you know that Duct Rat whose paperwork that you like losing track of?" Chellick said into his radio.

A brief response later, "Yeah, him." Rubbing the back of his neck, Chellick added, "I'd like him to find me someone who can hack the restricted files. I want to know everything there is to know about our boss and the Spectres."

********************************************************

**Ashley thought about what Garrus' words,** all the way back to the Normandy's docking cradle. She slipped past the guards and the repair crews finishing their daily shifts. Wandering through the corridors of the ship, lost in thought...

The truth was that she'd done more good aboard this ship in the last few months, more so than anything else that she'd done her entire career. She was a part of the Normandy's crew, which was important to her.

But, still... like a burr under a horse saddle, the thought nagged at her. Could she trust Shepard?

Did Shepard trust her?

***

Shepard came across Ashley organizing her station, pulling out her person effects and stowing them in a duffel bag.

"Going somewhere, Gunnery Chief?" Shepard's quiet voice startled her.

"I'm just getting my things squared away, Commander." Ashley said, still packing her stuff. "I'm sure that you'll want your next Gunnery Chief to hit the ground running."

"I'm not aware of any personnel changes, Gunnery Chief." Shepard sighed. "Would you mind explaining?"

"I accused my commanding officer of screwing us over." Ashley laughed bitterly. "Last I checked, that wasn't exactly conducive to a harmonious work environment."

"In case you weren't paying attention, there's no official record of that conversation." Shepard said helpfully. "What helps is that you were doped up after having just been shot. Plus, seeing Saren kill your team members can't have been easy to see."

"You knew that I was totally ready to give my life for any one of those guys, but having them die right in front of me..." Ashley trailed off.

"That's Saren's fault," Shepard hissed. "And I intend for that son of a bitch to answer for their deaths, along with all the other crap he's done."

"Well, I guess that's it for him," Ashley quipped. "I'll say this much for you, skipper, you don't screw around."

"Touching..." Shepard said dryly. "So what's your opinion of the last mission?"

"Excuse me?" Ashley managed, nonplussed.

"You're still my Gunnery Chief, and I'm asking for your tactical appraisal." Shepard replied, all matter-of-fact.

"About the AI Dreadnought or the batshit-crazy Turian who wants to kill us all?" Ashley asked dryly.

"Kaidan and Ellison both said that you have a good grasp of squad dynamics, and you spent time with Alenko. Why do YOU really think he did what he did?"

"Permission to speak freely, ma'am?"

Shepard nodded wordlessly.

"You scared the shit out of him. You scare the shit out of most people."

"Most people?"

"Ma'am, everybody's heard the stories. What you did at Torfan, mostly," Ashley shrugged. "But, honestly? Seeing you in action is... well, the sight of you fighting is something else. People say things like 'do what it takes to get the job done,' but you'll actually DO whatever you have to do to in order to win. I guess that, on some level... that scares some people."

"Does that scare you?" Shepard asked quietly.

"What scares me is how often you seem to be able to turn situations that seem hopeless into victory." Ashley said, as she began taking apart a sniper rifle. "I honestly think that Kaidan got a little nervous that winning isn't just everything for you, but it's the only thing."

Shepard nodded. "I thought it might be something like that. Come to Flux tonight Chief, we can raise a glass to absent friends and then I can show you just how much respect i have for you and the crew."

"If I can ask, ma'am?" Ashley ventured. Shepard nodded wordlessly, so the Gunnery Chief asked, "About Xander... how did he manage to convince you to keep his nature a secret? 'Cuz that's a Hell of a judgment call."

"When we were on Noveria, Peak 15's security detail activated a Neutron Purge system, with all of us still in the blast zone. So Xander goes and shoves his hands into an elevator power coupling." Atypically, Shepard took on the thousand-yard-stare that Ashley vaguely remembered seeing on her grandfather's face.

"He takes a gigawatt charge through his whole body in order to get the elevator moving out of the affected area, and he does it to save my life and the lives of the squad." Shepard shook her head vigorously, trying to snap herself out of the ghastly memory. "And whatever else that I might think of him, Williams, something like that still takes balls."

"He can't die, ma'am," Ashley reasoned. "Risking his life... it doesn't have quite the meaning that it would with someone who can actually die in combat."

Shepard just shook her head. "You didn't see the look on his face just before he did it, Williams. Let alone hear the way he screamed as he fried himself. Xander might not be able to die, but getting killed still hurts. A lot."

The former farm girl sighed. "Trust me, Williams, he's risking just as much as we do, every time he steps onto a battlefield, and he still does it."

"How come you aren't pressuring me to make nice with him?"

"Not my business if you make nice or not," Shepard shrugged. "But this is still a multilateral mission, Williams, and I expect you to work with Xander like I expect you to work with Wrex or Garrus or Tali."

"If trust is your big issue, then come to Flux tonight," Shepard sighed, suddenly looking pensive. "Anderson has a plan for getting us off the Citadel, but there's an element of risk; both personally and professionally. I'm willing to burn my own life and career because... well, you're right, Williams. I don't have a problem risking anything and everything to win. But this... what he's planning and what I'd have to do... It's not fair to make that call for all of you."

"I'll be there, ma'am," Ashley vowed, saluting her CO.

Shepard stared at the Gunnery Chief for a while before smiling and finally saying, "You're a smart woman, Williams, and a good soldier who knows her own mind and her own worth. Those are qualities that I need, especially now that we're so close to the end. But that has to be your choice."


	28. Lockdown 4

_An- Thanks to Reikson for helping me get this far. We are in the home stretch folks ...Courage.__**  
**__**  
**__**************************************************************************************************************__**  
**__**  
**__**Shepard's Thought's **_

_Anderson had a plan, a last desperate gambit. It was risky and had the decidedly dangerous side-effect of effective committing treason.__  
__  
__But, as he insisted on pointing out, either we risk it and maybe save the galaxy or watch the entire galaxy die. I knew what my choice was, but if Virmire had shown me anything, it was that I couldn't take the crew's trust for granted.__  
__  
__I needed to know where they stood. So, with a weary heart, I walked into the private room at Flux that the Normandy's crew had commandeered for that last evening.__  
__  
__I didn't know what I was going to say.__  
__  
__But, as I looked around the room, I spontaneously decided... well, don't tell Xander this, but I decided to channel HIM a little, as far as tactics go. I think it worked._

*

*

**Shepard stood up from her chair,** looking over her whole crew.

"Ears up, Marines!" Ashley barked, and the room went silent.

"Everyone eaten?" Shepard asked. There were a few positive murmurs and she nodded. "Everyone still sober?" A few laughs were her answer. "Close enough, I suppose."

"You all remember a few months ago, when I took command of the Normandy? I promised you that I would stop Saren no matter what the cost." She stepped away from the railing and began to walk slowly through the room. "But it would seem that fate has chosen to test my resolve and I don't intend for it to find me lacking."

"Now, thanks to Miss al-Jilani, most of you... Hell, most of Citadel space knows that the Normandy's been locked down until further notice," she sneered. "Meanwhile, the Citadel Fleets are moving to secure local space because they think that Saren and his armies can be stopped with a simple blockade."

Pacing back and forth, she added, "I'll be blunt; I think they're wrong, AND I think that they're risking the lives of every man, woman, and child in Citadel space with this bout of idiocy."

Shepard took a deep breath. "Repairs to the Normandy are scheduled to be completed at 0900 tomorrow morning. At 0930, Captain Anderson intends to secure the ambassadorial suite and effect the cancellation of the lockout of Normandy's primary systems. We know that this will be an act of treason, so we'll have to honor his sacrifice accordingly."

As the crew looked at each other in concern, she added, "Simultaneously, a digital signal will be sent to a monitoring device planted in Citadel Control. This jamming signal will cause the tracking computers to become inoperative for a period of approximately thirty minutes, during which coordinating any organized response to the Normandy's departure will be next to impossible."

Now her away-team squad of specialists were exchanging glances. "Once these two events have taken place, the Normandy will leave the Citadel, making best speed for the Mu Relay and the planet Ilos. This will be considered an act of mutiny, also a capital offense."

Now Shepard leaned onto the railing by her forearms. "This is not a decision to be made lightly, people!" she barked. "The fate of billions hangs on the choices that I make, but your lives... your careers are important as well! Don't throw away your lives without considering the full weight of what you're doing!"

Suddenly looking tired, she added, "The balloon goes up at 0930 hours, people! Anyone wishing to remain behind is to report to the SSV Madrid and surrender yourselves! Understand that I bear you no ill will and respect your choice! However, for the rest of you..." and here, her voice grew soft. "...for those of you who have followed me thus far, and intend to follow me just a little further... I thank you for your support."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have quite the busy day planned. Best I get some rack time so that I'll be ready to face it." Shepard picked up a glass of wine and saluted her crew before heading for her quarters.

There was a buzz of hushed conversation around the room. Suddenly, Xander yawned before saying loudly, "Well, I think that I've reached my limit. I'm turning in for the night; got a busy day tomorrow."

He was heading for the door when Tali and Garrus both stood up to join him. The renegade Turian drawled, "We're going to be pretty busy tomorrow as well... we'd better get some rest." Ashley followed after them, while Wrex tossed back one last drink before he also left his seat, giving a defiant glare to the rest of the room.

Soon enough, every member of the Normandy's crew had left Flux. Yet, Rita and her sister found that, in all of the confusion, several people had left behind larger-than-average tips.

*********

*********

**Ashley found Xander standing on the docking cradle**, looking out onto the wards and the Citadel Tower off in the distance. They stood together silently, deliberately not watching as the Normandy's crew returned to their ship.

Xander watched her for a moment before sighing. "Could you just hit me and get it over with?"

"You lied about meeting my grandfather, didn't you?"

"That's actually the only lie I told you."

"What was he like?"

"He was a great guy, Ash. I think he didn't JUST roll over, you know, he wanted to keep going." Sighing, he sat down on a nearby shipping crate. "Hell, his men wanted to keep going, and probably would've kept going if Parliament had supported him instead of compromising. I was there when he faced down Saren's brother, General Desolas Arterius. He didn't let that ranting psychopath intimidate him one whit."

Looking over at her, he smiled sadly. "Your grandfather once told me that honor was the most important thing that a marine could have, far more than any weapon or armor suit or equipment. And I swear, on my honor as a marine, that everything else I've told you is the truth."

Ashley looked at Xander. "I've fought long and hard to get what I wanted in life. To get here, as Gunnery Chief." Then she sighed, exhausted beyond her own understanding. "But to do that, I put aside a lot things. And in all that time, I've never once felt that I was fighting for anything worthwhile."

Turning her gaze to the Normandy, she stared at it for a while before saying, "But this fight... this is worthwhile. Being with you has made me feel like I was worth something. So if we do this..."

"Ash, there are parts of my life that will scare the crap out of you," Xander sighed. Then he added, "There are parts of my life that you'll never understand. Parts that you won't WANT to understand. Just know this; I've been fighting this war for a long time, since I was sixteen. And I don't know how to do anything else. I don't know how to look the other way when people need help."

"So this craziness is always going to be a part of your life?" Ashley asked aloud.

"This craziness is always going to be a part of OUR lives... if you're cool with that, then I honestly can't think of anyone else with whom I'd face Hell."

Ashley chuckled. "Xander Harris, you do know how to sweet-talk a girl." She leaned in and kissed him, and they stood there frozen before breaking apart.

"W- wow!" Xander sputtered.

"Grab some rack time, sailor. Skipper's going to need all hands on deck tomorrow." Ashley teased, smirking at him.

Xander saluted her. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. I apologize for our earlier miscommunication."

"If we manage to pull off our op tomorrow, you can make it up to me with a little physical endurance training," she teased.

Xander watched her leave, waiting until she'd gone through the airlock before rolling his eyes heavenward, groaning, "All Hell's breaking loose, the galaxy might be overrun... of course, I'm going to get some now. Why do you task me like this?"

*******

*******

**Shepard sat in her cabin,** looking at her uniform jacket. By tomorrow, she'd no longer have the right to wear it. There were some amongst the Alliance Military, who'd say she didn't deserve to wear it, even now. Behind her, on the computer, was a message for Coleman Hobbs to find when he came on shift. If many of the crew had elected to stay behind, then he would have to know why they were there.

She added a notation to the letter, telling Hobbs to give anyone who chose to do so a Commendation for Loyalty to the Alliance. Then she scoffed. A commendation from a disgraced officer wouldn't carry much weight, but it was something.

"Nice move, ma'am," Kaidan Alenko rasped behind her, causing her to turn her chair around and point a pistol at a ghost. "...you left them and yourself an out."

"Just like you were always saying." Shepard sighed, letting her weapon fall. This wasn't the first time the faces of the those she'd failed to save came back to haunt her. Normally a good stiff drink or three banished the demons for a while. She been catching glimpses of the lieutenant since The Normandy had been locked down.

"Normally, I'd love to indulge my guilt Lieutenant, but I've had a lot to drink and tomorrow's going to be problematic."

"Then I'll make this quick. The Powers-that-Be have a message for you."

Shepard looked up from where she'd been ready to nod off. "Wait, you mean this isn't... you're really here, but you're dead?" she sputtered.

"Shepard, you have an immortal on your crew, you've met a powerful demon lord, and you're going into battle against ancient and powerful sentient warship. Is a ghost really THAT surprising?" Kaidan Alenko asked wryly.

"Was the universe always this weird and I just didn't notice?" she groaned.

"Xander and his friends did a lot to keep a lid on the weird, but the weird..." Kaidan sighed. "Well, the weird is getting restless AND it's getting hungry. The Reapers are the tip of a very large iceberg. This time, Earth won't be enough for them. They want it all back Shepard; They want entire galaxy as their oyster."

"They're not getting it," Shepard snapped. "...it's just that simple."

"You may not know it, Shepard, but the Universe hears things like that and it listens. But I came to warn you."

"About what?"

"When you get to Ilos, don't take Xander with you. He cannot set foot on Ilos, under any circumstance."

"Why not?"

"Because, Shepard, if there's one thing that I've learned from the whole 'being-dead' thing, it's that there are things out there. Old and powerful things," Kaidan shuddered. "They're mostly asleep, but when they wake up, they're hungry. And one of them is waiting on Ilos. If Xander goes down there, he'll wake it up, and you're not ready to face it. Not yet."

"You expect me to make a tactical decision, based on a ghostly portent of doom?" she sneered.

"I expect you to do what you've always done, Shepard; follow your best instincts."

"My instincts are what got me into this!" she roared at him. "They got you killed!"

"They also kept you alive and let you survive," Kaidan riposted, shutting her up. "Trust your gut, Shepard. It's lead you this far. Don't start second-guessing it now."

******

********

**Shepard marched into the CIC**, her eyes cold and hard. Sleep had been elusive and she'd briefly considered going to find Liara.

The many bleary eyes looking back at her from the sensor pits and workstations made it clear she was not the only one unable to find restful sleep last night.

Xander had been creeping around the ship till very, very late. His steps seemed to constantly bring him back to that one malfunctioning atmospheric control pad Kaiden had seemed so obsessive about. Finaly at 0300 while retrieving her umpteenth glass of cold water. she'd found him surrounded by disassembled parts and cursing softly at the flickering holgraphic displays.

Eventually she was forced to make it a direct order that he grab some sleep or else face the consequences ie. another through examination from Doctor Chakwas. She'd headed off to bed herself after that and slept fairly lightly.

Dreams and anxieties mish-mashed in her mind till her REM sleep was a carnival of surreal images. At 0730, her beeping alarm had woken her from a standard pursuit dream. She had been cool with the giant Reaper pursuing her but the odd man following her about with the plate of cheese slices ... that had been just a little TOO creepy

Finally accepting that she had done her best to get a good nights sleep she took a long hot shower before donning her dress blues which she promptly removed replaced, removed again and finally settled on the uniform jacket left hanging open over the outfit many in service dubbed the uni-casual.

It was in this ensemble she greeted the morning shift of repair workers who arrived to finish their tasks aboard ship. Now an hour and change later she was as ready as she was likely to be.

"Joker, repair status," she barked. as she mounted the ramp to the Galaxy Map bringing up the holographic representation of the local space.

"The last of the repair crews just bugged out a few minutes ago," he said over the com.

Pressley walked up to her and handed over a datapad. "Duty shift assignments, ma'am. Thought you'd want take a quick look before I sign off."

Duty assignment should've been almost routine, requiring little more then a quick signature, but they did have one important function that was particularly important to her today. At a glance, she could determine who was, and more importantly who was NOT, available for assignment. Those members of her crew that had left the ship and her fool plans behind for good.

She gaped at the form. "Pressley, I think you might want to go over this again. According to this, I have a full crew requesting duty assignments TODAY."

Pressley glanced at the pad for half a beat. "No, ma'am, that's no mistake. It seems that we have a full boat today. You might want to let XO Hobbs know that he has no need to waste his time getting up to look at an empty airlock."

"I see." Shepard walked over the comm station next to Joker, and was about to address the crew.

Then Joker interrupted, "If you could manage to avoiding sounding like you're choked up and misty-eyed, I got ten creds riding on you." the helmsman said with a smirk.

"Who said I was going to cry?"

Xander, who'd walked into the cockpit by that point, winced, "I never said she was going to cry, I just said she was going to get emotional."

"...which implies crying." Joker insisted.

"Who else was in on this?" Shepard demanded.

"Liara wanted a piece of the action," Joker explained, "but with her obvious advantage we had to handicap her."

"Nothing personal, Boss," Xander quipped. "I had to bet against you to juice the odds."

Shepard just shook her head. "Open a channel, Joker," she said, sighing. "This is Commander Shepard. According to the duty roster, we have all hands today. You have my thanks. Now let's go find us a Conduit."

"Stirring words, ma'am," Joker deadpanned.

"Joker?"

"I'm moved," Xander drawled. "I think I'm tearing up a little over here."

"Harris." Shepard growled.

"Reporting for duty, Commander," Liara said, from behind her.

Turning to her new girlfriend, Shepard only said, "Doctor, last I checked, your duty station was in medical."

"It is, but I wanted to see your face when you realized that the whole crew was still aboard," the young Asari replied, an impish grin on her face.

"Well, grab a seat and enjoy the show, Liara, because this should be interesting." Turning to Joker, Shepard only asked, "Time?"

"0930, and we're still locked down."

Suddenly, the indicator lights shifted from red to green.

"Lockdown cancelled." Joker reported.

Shepard turned to Xander. "Harris?"

"Time to see if Tali's Combat drone actually works as advertised," Xander muttered. "Relaying signal... now," the immortal reported, tapping away at his omnitool. "We should be seeing something in three... two... ONE..."

In Citadel Control, a hardlight drone fizzled to life.

As busy as Citadel Control usually was, it was several minutes before anyone noticed the drone. The new drone began relaying a signal directly to the small bug attached to a nearby terminal, which altered its carrier frequency and allowed it to begin broadcasting a jamming signal.

As promised, Citadel Control Technicians started panicking as all of their screens suddenly went offline, all at once. Finally, one of the techs noticed the small drone and waved at it, trying to shoo it away.

The drone turned an angry pink and began discharging bursts of lightning at the tech, sending him flying. Several C-Sec officers quickly converged on the drone and shooting at it, causing it to counterattack with several more bursts of electricity. Then, the drone exploded in a final, forceful detonation that hurled several people away.

It was only afterwards, when reviewing the security feeds of the incident, that anyone noticed that the drone seemed to target males specifically. Any female only had her weapons disabled, but males received the full force of the drone's attacks.

When he saw the footage for himself, Xander whispered, "Thanks, Anya. I guess that's one more I owe you."

"We are go for launch, and engines are hot." Joker reported.

"Take us out, Joker!" Shepard ordered. "Best speed to the relay and don't stop for anything."

The stealth frigate slid out of its docking cradle and jetted away, sailing past several ships swirling aimlessly through the space of the Serpent Nebula while awaiting instructions that were not coming.

"I don't think that anyone's even noticed that we're gone, ma'am." Joker reported as the Normandy approached the Mass Relay. "Sending vector data to the Relay... it's running hot."

The glow of blue lightning arcing off of the Relay's powering-up Mass Effect core filled CIC. Shepard squinted to shield her eyes, while Joker continued to count off until transit began. Unconsciously, Shepard found Liara's hand in hers. The Asari smiled at her in reassurance.

Suddenly, the com system crackled. "SSV Normandy... SSV Normandy, this is the Vigilance. You are in violation of lockdown protocol. Return to dock immediately or you will be fired on."

"Give me a look at her, Joker." Shepard grunted.

"Vigilance; Turian cruiser-class. Pretty hefty," Joker commented. "In a speed run, we'd smoke her no problem, but her weapons array is pretty nasty. Plus, we're sitting ducks out here until the Relay's ready for transit."

Xander checked his tactical screens, "We start playing run-and-gun out here, with all that civilian traffic, and someone might get hurt in the crossfire."

"Better them then us, right?" one of the servicemen shouted from the sensor pits.

"Put 'em on." Shepard snapped. A moment later, she heard the flanged voice of the Vigilant's commanding officer quite clearly.

"This is Normandy actual, Commander Shepard speaking. Who am I talking to?"

"Executor Goran, Vigilance-actual. Power down your ship and return to dock, Commander. This is an act of mutiny and will be treated as such." Everyone in the cockpit promptly assessed the Vigilant's CO as a typical Turian hardass.

"Goran, you sound like you've got two braincells to rub together, which puts you way ahead of Councilor Valern. Saren's out there and he has to be stopped."

"That is what WE are doing out here, human," Goran sneered. "The pride of the Citadel Fleet is going to stop him, not some delusional troublemaker with a scary reputation. Now heave to, or you will be fired upon."

"Goran, take a look at your LADAR," Shepard snarled. "You're surrounded by a few hundred civilian vessels that just lost contact with Citadel Control. You and I both know that tracking arrivals at this station is a bitch and a half at the best of times. So if you want to be a real hero today, then you might want to help keep these civilian craft from flying into each other."

Then her voice affected a cruel condescension as she then added, "But, hey, that's your choice."

There was silence as the Normandy approached the Relay, as the power-up for transit started. Suddenly she heard Goran on the line again.

"This isn't over, human," Goran snarled. "Count on that. I'll see you again at your court-martial."

"Assuming any of us survive Goran; I'll make sure you get a really good seat," Shepard snapped before cutting the connection.

Joker activated the transit codes and the Normandy leapt away in a flash of blue light.

**************

**************

**Chellick stormed into Pallin's office.** "Citadel Control is plotting escape vectors but for right now the Normandy has gotten away." Chellick reported.

"Have Bailey go through the security footage of the Traffic Control Center. we'll see if we can find out when and how Shepard got into the systems." Pallin looked up from his console. "Have you processed Anderson yet?"

"He's sitting in a cell," Chellick snapped.

"Good. if and when the Alliance Navy calls, we'll tell them that Anderson stays behind bars. No special deals, no nothing; he's charged with a capital offense."

"For assaulting his own ambassador?"

"...Which resulted in a criminal escaping custody. The whole galaxy will see what the Spectres are now; what Shepard is."

"Kolnar has submitted his resignation and I've accepted it." Chellick grunted, moving past Pallin in order to look out at the Presidium.

"A little presumptuous of you," Pallin observed. "Changes to personnel should be vetted through my office first."

"He's disgraced the badge, his team, and his Executor. His off-hour deviance is his business, but when it affects his job performance..." Chellick grumbled. "...well, that's when his business becomes my problems. He's gone."

"Fine, you seem set on your course," Pallin dismissed Chellick's justification. "I can't say that I was enormously fond of the boy myself."

Chellick turned back, glaring at Pallin in disgust. "I wonder..." Chellick speculated aloud. "If Kolnar saw you just give him up without a fight, would he have been so eager to help you violate his oaths and his duty just so you could have your petty vengeance?"

"That will be all, Officer Chellick!" Pallin roared.

"No, that WILL NOT be all, Executor Pallin!" Chellick snapped. "The only reason that Kolnar disgraced himself was his belief that you were going to protect him!" he barked, pointing a claw at his superior officer. "And you didn't even have the Spirits-be-damned courage to admit to ME as to what you'd egged him into doing!"

"I never told him to let the woman in the Council Chambers." Pallin sneered.

"But you knew that it was happening!" Chellick roared. "You could've stopped him, but no! Anything that make the Spectres look bad makes C-Sec look good, right?"

Pallin was out of his seat by now, his three-fingered hands slammed down upon his desk. "The Spectres are out of control and Shepard could actually be the worst of them! Worse than Saren!" he roared.

"Stow it, Pallin! I saw the files!" Chellick bellowed back. Part of him noticed how his commanding officer's mandibles suddenly fluttered in anxiety. "I saw how many times you applied! And that they turned you down, each and every time, for the exact same reason; a lack of original thinking and creativity!"

Noticing the way Pallin's mandibles flared broadly, Chellick jumped on it. "That's it, isn't it? This wasn't about justice, or rules, or anything of the sort! This was revenge! They refused you and gave Spectre status to a human, of all things, and you were going to make them pay for it!"

"There is no way that you'll ever be able to prove anything." Pallin sneered, suddenly calming down. "Spectre records are sealed and Kolnar can say what he wants. But, in the end, it was his code that al-Jilani used to get into the Council chambers."

"Then you'd better pray that Saren isn't on his way to the Citadel with an army large enough to conquer the whole station." Chellick sneered back. "Because now, thanks to you, everybody knows that Shepard warned them that Saren was coming and that they didn't listen. So, to save face and not look bad after Saren attacks, they'll need to offer up a scapegoat."

Now Chellick leaned in, just enough to violate Pallin's personal space, as he sneered, "And a bitter, old Executor, that exceeded his authority, would just about satisfy the public lust for blood if this all goes... tits-up, as the humans say."

Straightening himself up again, Chellick adjusted the rim-collar of his SWAT-type medium C-Sec armor. "And the public will want blood, al-Jilani will see to that. She knows that you used her, and I can bet that she won't be pleased if your nonsense makes her look bad in front of the camera. That one's going to scream long and loud, and if she does it long enough, then it'll hurt C-Sec."

Chellick now made his way out of Pallin's office, but stopped just as the doors opened. Looking back, he leveled a parting shot. "I won't let this organization go down in flames because of you and your petty schemes. Enjoy that chair while you can, Pallin. I promise that you won't be in it long." With that, he stalked out.

Pallin snorted, unconcerned by Chellick's threats. He only activated his personal VI and said, "Record new standing personal memory note."

"Ready," the program intoned blandly.

The old Turian then said, "Find a way to demote Detective Chellick. End note."

************

************  
**  
****Miranda Lawson's digital form resolved itself in the inner sanctum of the Illusive Man.**

As always, he was genial in his greetings. "Miranda, what can I do for you?"

"A curious report just came from the Citadel. It seems that our human Spectre just stole her own ship and departed for parts unknown. Alliance HQ's officially saying little, but all Listening Posts in the fringes of Terminus space have been put on high alert but told NOT to do anything; just report if they see her."

The Illusive Man chuckled. "Good old Xander. I knew that we could count on him to work his usual magic." Then he frowned and lit another cigarette. "Have OUR listening posts put on high alert as well. Plot possible course vectors. I want to know where they're going."

"You want the Conduit, whatever it is?" Miranda asked, somewhat unnecessarily.

"Considering how much humanity has suffered because of it," the Illusive Man sneered. "...I'd say that we're entitled to first crack at studying its secrets and whatever else might be on Ilos."

"Incidentally, I received a report from an operative on Terra Nova," the genetically-enhanced woman added. "...he says that Buffy Summers left Terra Nova yesterday, and it took him so long to report this because she filed a bogus flight plan and traveled under a false ID. She could be heading towards the Citadel, even as we speak."

"Then the end game is starting, Miranda," he mused aloud. Then he focused his gaze upon her again. "Have our people on the Citadel facilitate her arrival, if she does arrive there. I want her to have as little trouble at customs as possible."

"What is it about those two?" Miranda wanted to know. Buffy Summers and Xander Harris were two perennial figures of obsession for the Illusive Man, and secrets kept from her was not something that she liked or entertained in her position as one of Cerberus' highest-ranking agents.

"Miranda, there was a time when those two were humanity's greatest weapon and best defense," he replied, with all of the paternal indulgence of a father. "...but it has been a long time for the both of them. I want to see if they still have what it takes."


	29. Paramour  Achievement Unlocked

_**AN- Thanks to Reikson for the help and support **_  
**  
***********  
***********  
***********  
****  
****Achievement Unlocked - Asari Ally **

Shepard looked up as the door to her quarters hissed open. She brightened up once she noticed that Liara was standing in the doorway. "Hey, Doc," she received the young Asari archaeologist cheerfully. "I was just thinking about you."

"I have also been thinking, Shepard," Liara replied quietly. "About you...about us."

"Us?" Shepard quirked an eyebrow in spite of herself. "That's bold."

"I've come to realize that a person has to BE bold," Liara mused aloud as she sidled up to the brunette commander. "It's the only way to get what you want."

A smile slowly made its way across Shepard's face. Standing up from her chair, she inclined her head just enough to meet Liara's gaze. "...and just what is it that you want, Doctor T'soni?"

"A few months ago, I thought I knew. Data disks and ancient ruins... that was my life, and it was a good one. But now, with this crew, and with you..." she now looked fascinated by an idea or image that only she could see. "I want to know so much more... I want to be so much more."

"What you are, is pretty damn amazing as it is." Shepard said quietly.

"I wasn't lying, back on the Presidium," Liara whispered. "Shepard, I owe you so much that love seems a petty return for all the good that you've brought to me."

"Liara, until I met you, all there was to me was a scary nickname and a nasty reputation that I hated." Shepard sighed, slumping down on her bed. "With you, I suddenly want be so much more than the Butcher of Torfan. I see how you look  
at me, the way you talk about me, and... I want to be THAT person."

"You ARE a hero, Shepard," Liara insisted gently, sitting down next to Shepard. "Maybe you're not the hero that the galaxy wants, but you are the hero that we need, and you are all the hero that I could ever want and need."

Shepard sighed as Liara leaned into her arm. Turning to each other, they kissed for only the second time, holding each other close.

When they parted, unwilling to let each other go, the two of them simply stared at each other. Finally, Shepard managed, "H- how do we-"

Liara interrupted her, saying, "We do what comes naturally. As I told you, I will handle the... freaky, black-eyed thing, as you like to call it."

"I trust you, Liara." Shepard sighed, leaning in close to kiss her again

The Asari's eyes suddenly became deepest black as she replied in a whisper. "And as you trust me, Commander... embrace eternity."

And those two fateful words saw the blossoming beauty of Liara T'soni and Joan Shepard bonding their souls in the furnace of love.

And whatever else that either of them may become, whatever else the future might hold for them...

At least, for that night... there would only ever be Liara and Shepard.

***

***

**Companion Achievement – The Soldier**

Xander sighed as he huddled under the sheet. He and Ashley had pooled their sheets and bedding to create a little nest, of sorts. Hookups were happening all across the ship, in every out-of-the-way nook and cranny on a ship the size of the _Normandy_.

"Well…" Ashley panted, from where she lay beside him. "…that's a new twist on 'on the floor and give me twenty,' don't you think?"

Xander peeked under the sheet and shuddered. "Don't you listen to her; you totally made it to forty."

Ashley sighed as she worked her shoulders. "I think I've got a few new battle scars, soldier," she grinned wickedly at him.

"What about me?" the immortal Scooby drawled. "I know you said that you could be a hellcat, but… wow." Then he grew pensive. "I think you may have bitten me, at the end there."

Ashley punched him in the arm, scowling. Then, once she saw a familiar stirring under the sheet, raised it to take a glance at what lay below.

"How the Hell are you still-" she sputtered, only to have Xander lean in and kiss her, hard.

When they parted for breath, he replied, "It's magic."

"You're kidding?" she groaned, slumping back onto her pillow.

"Actually, I am, and yet I'm not…" Xander shrugged.

"Okay, now I'm lost," the Gunnery Chief sighed.

"I'm not surprised," the Tech Sergeant deadpanned. When she punched him in the arm again for his little crack, he raised his hands in surrender, saying, "Okay, okay, let me explain."

Turning to lean on his side and face her, he said, "It's like this; you're a pretty strong girl. But you also have powered battle armor, which makes you even stronger, right?"

"Yeah, what's your point?" she frowned.

"But if powered armor makes you strong, why would you need to keep in shape and work out all the time?"

Ashley snorted. "Simple; you maintain physical strength, power, and endurance, so that you can wear the armor more comfortably. Plus, the better trained and physically adept you are, you can do more in it."

Then his answer hit her, as comprehension lit her eyes. "The better the shape that you're in, physically, the easier it is for your abilities to… do whatever it is they do to keep you alive and healthy, right?"

"As an explanation of a complex metaphysical concept goes?" Xander shrugged. "It's not too shabby."

"So… how did it happen exactly?" Ashley asked.

"Are you sure you want to hear the whole sordid story?" Xander asked. "It's not a tale for the faint of heart… there was tragedy, deceit, loves lost and friendships betrayed, singing and dancing."

"I'm fairly sure that I can handle the occasional showtune, now give."

"All right, all right," he shrugged. Looking back up at the ceiling, he began his story. "It all started with Buffy and the day I first met her."

"Why her?"

"Unto every generation she is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampire, demons and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is the Slayer. "

"You're kidding me."

"Nope. Get comfy, Ash, 'cuz this story… you won't believe a word of it, but I swear to you that everything is true and actually happened. I should know, 'cuz I was there for almost all of it…"


	30. Ilos

_**Shepard's Thoughts ...**__**  
**__  
__Surprisingly enough, Xander was rather calm about being left out of the Ilos mission, all based on a ghostly portent of doom. In hindsight, that should've been my first clue that he was either up to something, or soon would be.__  
__  
__At the time, I was concentrated on finding Saren. Xander's willingness to put the mission before personal glory was just one less thing to worry about. If I'd thought about it more carefully, I would've remembered that Xander's a wonderful person but has two glaring character flaws.__  
__  
__He's a little too clever for his own good... and has terrible impulse control.__  
__  
__Ilos turned out to be a tropical jungle planet dotted with ancient ruins. I immediately regretted taking T'soni along. As sweet as she is, she DOES have a fixation on the past that made her occasionally obsess about some aspect of Prothean lore or architecture... So it had to be killing her; the validation__  
__of her life's work, and we were having a firefight in the middle of it._

***

***

"The archaeological find of a lifetime, a lifetime!" Liara complained loudly as she fired her pistol from behind the wall that she was using for cover. "Between that damn Turian and his Geth, I can't even-!"

"Liara, could we get a little backup over here?" Shepard shouted.

Suddenly a Geth Armature rose up, firing heavy plasma shots that hemmed the Normandy away-team into cover. What was more annoying was that one of the shots destroyed the wall of stone etchings from which Liara had just been trying to make a rubbing.

The Asari archaeologist's eyes went black as she shrieked something in Thessian; a string of words that were either so obscure that the translator couldn't decipher their meaning, or was so vile that trying to accurately expound the phrase's definition was impossible.

Reaching out with her hands, the young Asari archaeologist used a Pull-Throw combo to literally hurl the Armature into the air before smashing the walking tank against a nearby stone wall with a surprising amount of brutality. Flexing her fingers into claws, still keeping the Armature in her biotic grasp, she then pulled her hands apart and tore the quadrupedal weapon in half. Then she stomped away, snarling curses at the universe in general.

"It's kind of cute when she does that." Ashley commented.

"Don't I know it." Shepard sighed happily before becoming all-business again. "Okay, Chief, what do you have for me?"

"Skipper, that door ain't opening without a Hell of a lot more firepower than what we've got," Ashley reported apologetically. "Even the Mako's main gun ain't gonna be much good."

Shepard nodded. "Then we're doing this the old-fashioned way."

Climbing into the Mako's cockpit, she powered up the local scanners. A few minutes later, she reported aloud, "Looks like we've got another structure several clicks from here; and it's lousy with Geth."

Wrex laughed bitterly. "Not even Saren would be stupid enough to leave the backdoor unguarded."

Ashley nodded. "Whatever these synthetics are sitting on, it's gotta be important."

"Then we make best speed. Ashley, hold this position and keep our transportation safe. Any Geth so much a glance at this tank, they die. Am I clear?

"Crystal, Skipper." Ashley saluted.

"And see if you can get Liara locked down, as well." Turning to Wrex, she barked, "Wrex, you're with me! Come on!"

Wrex and Shepard headed for the security station, fighting off Geth every step of the way. Finally, they arrived at the security junction.

"Well, this is helpful," Wrex sneered. "You think that the Protheans would label their technology. How much effort would it have been, to stick up a sign saying 'Touch this thing if you want to open the big-ass door' or something?"

Shepard glanced at the console for all of a minute. "There it is," she snapped, tripped the circuits locking out the huge door.

They watched on an ancient monitor as the door rose. Ashley powered up the Mako, gunning the engine impatiently.

"Eager little thing, ain't she?" Wrex rumbled aloud, chuckling. "I saw the boy, Xander, this morning? He looked like he'd spent the night in a pit full of hungry varren."

"Damn it all, Wrex, that's so much more information than I needed!" she yelled at him, stomping out of the console room. Then she stopped at a wall etching, trailing her fingers across its design. "To sleep is to dream, to wake is to feed, and to live is to fight," she muttered distractedly.

"What's that mean?" Wrex wondered.

"No idea, and if I ask Liara, it'll just make her more upset." Shepard sighed.

Wrex and Shepard walked back to the Mako in silence until Shepard said clearly, "By the way, that's not an invitation for YOU to ask her just so you can rile her up. The mood she's in, she'll launch your ass into orbit."

"You've got no sense of fun, Shepard." Wrex complained.

The two of them made it back to the Mako, only to find Liara clutching another rubbing and looking very excited.

"I figured it out, Shepard!" she beamed. "I know why the Protheans came here!"

"You know where the Conduit is?"

"Oh, that? No, not yet," Liara shook her head. "No, I think I know why the Protheans built the Conduit here on Ilos. It's a sacred place for a Prothean Deity of some kind. There's a mention of a resting place for beings..." she showed the tracing to Shepard.

For her part, Shepard only had to glance at the rubbing before saying, "Angels. It's talking about angels... Well, the Prothean equivalent, anyway."

Liara gaped at her. "You can understand the words?"

"What's to understand?" Shepard shrugged. "They're in English; all the signs, messages, and what not? They're all in English."

"Ahh... no, they're not, skipper." Ashley reported, somewhat hesitant.

Frowning, Liara decided to try an experiment. "Shepard, what do those markings above the door say?"

Shepard looked up at the inscription for a moment. To her, the symbols squirmed like snakes before resolving themselves in plain English. "The writing above the door says 'Archives,' while the stuff by the side makes more mention of... a resting place, with a lot of stuff about warnings and portents  
of doom. Why?"

"The words are practically indecipherable," Liara explained. "I mean, I knew that they had a meaning, but..."

"Wait," Shepard faltered. "You mean, you can't read any of this stuff? Not the writings, not the messages... you can't understand any of this stuff at all?"

"What's fascinating is that YOU can," Liara refuted. "Between the Cipher and the Beacons, you've gained an understanding of the Prothean language."

"What's this about angels, skipper?" Ashley wanted to know.

"The Protheans believed that their Gods live in some far-off realm, while their emissaries watched over and occasionally guided the faithful," Shepard explained. "They had a ton of names for these emissaries, but we could just as well call them Angels and that would be pretty damn accurate."

Ashley shuddered. "Sounds weird," she muttered. "Almost like worshiping Gabriel or Lucifer instead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

"Actually, that's a pretty good summation of their belief system." Shepard grunted.

"Well..." Liara ventured. "...Angels, demons, or whatever else, the answers are down in that bunker somewhere."

Shepard now looked determined. "Then let's go find those answers."

*********

*********

**The Normandy was running silent. **Although the vacuum of space wouldn't transmit whatever noise that the Normandy's crew would've made, the ship's crew were being as quiet as possible. Perhaps hoping their silence would be like some ancient talisman against ill-fortune.

Xander looked out at the main viewscreen when he saw the Mass Relay light up like a Christmas tree. Geth Dropships slipped out of hyper-velocity speeds and took up cruising positions in the system.

"Joker, how many ships do YOU see out there?" Xander rasped urgently.

"TOO many, and they just keep coming!" the redheaded pilot hissed, shocked by what he was seeing. "Saren's been planning this attack for a long time, Xander!"

"The Citadel fleet's gonna be outnumbered ten-to-one." Garrus whispered.

"Actually junior that's being conservative." Navigator Pressly replied.

"This is worse then that, Pressly," Xander replied. "...the numbers I'm seeing out there means that we're seriously outgunned, even with the Alliance Forces in the Andura Sector backing up the Citadel's fleets."

He then opened up an internal comm channel. "Tali, you getting anything off of the sensor data that Joker's piping down to you?"

"Off the ships, yes," she replied, distracted. "I'm not sure, but I may have isolated the carrier-wave frequency that their neural network uses."

Suddenly the comm crackled. "Ground Team to Normandy! Ground Team to Normandy! This is Shepard, come in!"

"Reading you just barely, Commander." Joker reported.

"So have we bagged and tagged us an ex-Spectre, boss?" Xander asked.

"He's going through the Conduit even as we speak!" Shepard shouted back. "We made contact with a Prothean VI down here! It's called Vigil, and it says that the Conduit is a backdoor into the Citadel! It connects to that Mass Relay sculpture on the Presidium!"

"Why'd they need to build something like that, Shepard?" Garrus asked

"Funny story; apparently, the Citadel is an inactive Mass Relay. It connects to dark space, where the rest of the Reapers are located." Shepard replied.

"How many Reapers are we talking about, boss?" Xander asked, worried.

"That whole 'darken the sky of every world' jazz that Sovereign was pushing?" Shepard answered, "Well, according to Vigil, he's NOT kidding around."

"Well, we're looking at enough Geth ships here for the Citadel Fleet to kiss its collective ass goodbye!"

"I was afraid of that," Shepard sighed. "Okay, people, we're officially in over our heads! I'm taking the Mako through the Conduit. If all goes well, I have a program that will let me take control of the Citadel and the the Mass Relays around it! So you guys make best speed for the Andura Sector, and rendezvous with Admiral Hackett and the Fifth Fleet there! When I have control of the Relays, I'll open them and you can come riding in to save the day!"

Xander nodded, adding, "Good luck, boss!" before cutting off the call.

They waited as Geth Dropships slipped through the Pangaea Relay in a procession that ended with the departure of the giant dreadnought Sovereign, The crew let out a collective sigh of relief when the giant space vessel vanished through the Relay, right up until the lights on the massive construct suddenly flickered and died.

***

***

**For years afterwards, **David Anderson would remember that the most annoying thing about being right, about a worst-case-scenario, was that when innocent people often paid the price if the scenario occurred.

So, when the first explosions of Saren's attack began, he was darkly delighted that his gut feelings about his protege had been proven right on some level. But he was much more concerned that, now that the galaxy knew that Shepard was right, it might not survive long enough to tell her so.

Still, he was surprised when an older man came into the detention area and opened his cell, tossing him a pistol.

"What the Hell's going on?" Anderson asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Armando Bailey, C-Sec. You're her Captain, right? Shepard, I mean?"

"Considering that I helped her commit treason and mutiny, I'd say that my military career might be in question." Anderson replied carelessly.

"All Hell just broke loose, Anderson," Bailey reported. "Saren just showed up out of thin air, with enough Geth to fill the damn Concert Hall."

"Out of thin air?" Anderson sputtered.

"Yeah, that was my reaction as well," Bailey nodded. "Turns out that the Relay Monument in the middle of the Presidium? It ain't just a replica, it's a working model."

"Come on," Anderson offered, exposing his pistol's heat sink in order to inspect it. "If I know Shepard, she'll be right behind him. Gather your people and we'll make a stand."

"Make a stand?" Bailey ventured skeptically.

"This is a secure facility, isn't it? That makes it a good place to bring civilains and coordinate some kind of response." Anderson explained patiently.

The two men ran through C-Sec HQ, running into a Detective Chellick along the way.

"What's he doing out of his cell?" Chellick asked, looking at Anderson.

"I figured that we might need the extra hands if those synthetic bastards hit us any harder," Bailey explained, adding, "Besides, he's Shepards commanding officer."

"I don't know how helpful that might be, but let's concentrate on the here and now." Anderson growled. "What resources do we have?"

"A marine unit was on station when Saren first hit us," Chellick replied. "They've taken up a post at a service tunnel. The elevators are locked down, you see, so the service shafts are the only way to get around."

"Then we secure as many of the service shafts as we can, between here and the Lower Wards," Anderson said decisively. "Make sure that we have clear lines of movement, so that people can move easily if we have to run or if we have to fight. That way, our lines of transportation are cleared."

"On it." Bailey replied, saluting.

***

***

"What the f-" Joker hissed

Xander swiftly ran a scan. "Okay, that's new," the immortal groaned. "That is new, right? Tell me that isn't supposed to happen."

"It's probably just resetting itself from the transit of so many ships." Garrus insisted.

But Joker shook his head. "Relays around the Citadel see that much traffic every damn day, and they never close. This thing is dead."

"Aw, great," Pressly groaned. "So how are we supposed to hook up with Hackett's Fifth Fleet if we can't even get to them? We can't even send a comm message with it dead like it is."

Joker's fingers danced rapidly across his command console. "Calculating best speed to the next closest system with a Mass Relay and... we're looking at a few days of travel, and that's running at FTL full-blast the whole damn way."

"A few days?" Xander sputtered. "Joker, we've got maybe a few hours before Sovereign unleashes thirty-three flavors of Hell on the Citadel!"

"Normandy to Ground Team!" Joker yelled into the com-systems, to silence. "Normandy to Ground Team! Commander, come in! We've got an emergency up here!"

"Joker, wait a minute," Xander barked. Taking over the com-channel, he barked, "Vigil! Vigil, this is Normandy broadcasting on all channels! Please respond!"

The advanced Prothean VI responded. "I am online." Its voice was toneless, flat.

"Vigil, can you contact Commander Shepard? The organic who just passed by you, I mean." Xander asked.

"She has already left through the Conduit," the ancient VI explained.

"Ahh, shit, we're screwed!" Joker moaned.

"Vigil, please tell me that there's a way to reboot a Mass Relay!" Xander barked. "Sovereign powered down the one that the Geth fleet just used!"

"This is one of many anticipated outcomes." Vigil said flatly. "It is possible to send a powerful burst-communication though my main communications array. The burst would power up the Mass Relay long enough for you to access it, but it would only last a short time."

"Wait a minute," Joker leapt on a nascent idea. "We could send a burst transmission to the Fifth Fleet!"

"This operation will not affect the telemetry of the Relay," the ancient Prothean VI warned. "The destination would remain fixed on the point of egress that is currently programmed."

Silence reigned in the CIC. "Is he saying what I think he's saying?" Garrus asked.

"We power up the Relay and try to use it," Joker decided. "It'll take us to Citadel space."

" ...and a damn warzone." Xander reminded him.

"That's suicide!" Pressly barked.

Joker just shrugged. "On the upside; once we're through the relay, I could send the transmission burst. That way, Hackett and the Fifth Fleet would be ready and waiting for the Relays around the citadel to open."

Xander nodded. "It comes down to this, you guys. We stay here and rot, or we go through the Relay and maybe save Shepard's ass."

"...by risking ours," Pressley reminded him.

"...or we sit here and find out the hard way who won." The Navigator looked uncertain and Xander pressed his argument. "Pressly, we're already beating the odds, just by surviving this long. Why not see how far we can push it?"

The old Navigator sighed. "Fine, let's do this. I never planned on dying in bed, anyway." Activating the shipwide com-system, he barked, "All hands, all hands, stand by for a message from the XO! Battle stations! I repeat, battle stations!"

The crew scrambled for their assigned posts, landing in chairs and tapping away at their respective haptic holographic consoles.

Garrus was about to get out of the way moving toward rear of the CIC when Joker yelled, "Garrus, I'll need you up here when we come out on the other side! We'll be flying through the Citadel fleet and I'd kind of like to NOT be shot! Either as a traitor, or because someone didn't recognize our IFF!"

Garrus looked at Xander, who was already at the space once used by Kaiden Alenko. He nodded, and the Turian ran forward taking the tactical station.

Pressly was standing at the galaxy map, overlooking the whole scene with a grim expression on his face. Finally, he bellowed up to the cockpit, "Joker! You feeling lucky?"

"Screw luck! It's all about skill!" Joker called back.

Xander snickered, "Don't break an arm patting yourself on the back there, Moreau!" he said.

Joker glanced over at him with a reckless grin, "Pay attention Harris, you're about to see some real magic being done!"

Xander laughed while tapping a few keys, he took over the external com-system. "Vigil, this is Normandy!" he radioed to the Prothean VI. "Start your power transfer!"

"Acknowledged."

A beam of light speared upward from the planet below, striking the Mass Relay and making the whole device spark. Lights activated all across its surface and the blue lightning, of eezo being fed electrical current, arced and danced across the massive machine. Vaguely reminded of a tuning fork in design, Joker could almost swear that the Relay was vibrating.

"Hold on to your shorts, people, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!" Joker yelled as the Normandy jumped ahead, sailing through the Mass Relay as their collective vision blurred and then resolved again.

The Normandy had dropped right into Hell, just about to fight the Devil itself.

***

***

**Rebekah and Michael Petrovsky ran through the Citadel**. Clutching a wailing baby in her arms, she ducked reflexively as shots were fired around. A huge Geth Juggernaut rose up in front of them, leveling a weapon. Rebekah whimpered and sank to the ground, while Michael moved to try and shield both of them. He knew that it was a fruitless gesture, because the Geth could easily kill them both with a single blast.

Suddenly, a blade exploded out of the Geth's chest. The synthetic drone looked down at the intruding piece of metal. If it had a face, then it would've affected an expression of disbelief. The blade withdrew and and then the Juggernaut's head was cleaved cleanly from its shoulders. The huge Geth collapsed, revealing a young-looking human woman.

She was dressed in a heavy coat over a suit of tough-looking light combat armor that seemed to define her tight and powerful frame. She sheathed the sword in her hands, into a scabbard on her back, with a flourish.

Michael was sure that he towered over her by several inches, but the expression on her face radiated a power unlike anything that he could really describe. She reached out a hand to grab Rebekah and pull her to her feet.

"Gotta love those Turians. If nothing else, they know how to make a good sword." Buffy said, more to herself than to the shocked couple. "What's her name?" she pointed at the baby.

"His name's Jake," Rebekah mumbled. Then, as she continued to look at the ageless Slayer, she suddenly realized what had happened. So she grabbed the blonde girl's hand and shook it incessantly. "Thank you, thank you so much for rescuing us," she blubbered.

"I haven't done anything much yet," Buffy shrugged. "Let's get you guys to a safe area. Then we can celebrate."

The small family and the Slayer began moving though the chaos of the Citadel attack. Buffy raced ahead several times in order to deal with various advancing Geth and Krogan, taking them out with quick and deadly strikes from her weapon. They also picked up several more stragglers, people who had been too slow to reach shelter or too stubborn to realize that shelter was needed.

They reached an open area where Marie Durand's marine unit was quickly ushering people into a service shaft.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to say we're going to need you to use less fancy means of getting around the station until the elevators start working again." Some balding C-Sec officer rasped. Gesturing down the service shaft, he added, "There are people stationed in this shaft every few meters, and they'll guide you to a designated safe zone."

Buffy showed up with the Petrovsky family and the rest of her group.

"Thank you, Miss, but we've gotten a request for you," Durand said. "Well, that is, if you think that you're up to one more run."

"Oh, why not?" Buffy shrugged, sighing. "What else am I gonna do with a serrated, three-foot blade?"

"It seems that the Consort is trapped in her offices on the Presidium," a nearby Turian elaborated. "We've held off the Geth, but..."

"Say no more, I've got this one." Buffy snapped off a salute before she dashed off, with the Turian joining her.

As they ran across the Presidium, Buffy asked, "Where's this Consort?"

"She's just over the bridge..." the nameless Turian replied, and was shocked to see Buffy launching herself into the air with a quick, "Be right back," slipping past her lips. The Turian ran after her, but still almost managed to miss the sight of Buffy's attack.

The ageless Slayer had landed in the midst of the attacking Geth with enough force to send several of them flying off their feet, her blade sweeping out and cleaving several Geth units in two or hacking off limbs or heads. A Geth Prime unit fired a plasma blast at her, only to have her lash out with her blade and somehow managing to deflect the shot back at the unit, making it explode in short order.

Buffy raced inside the Consort's Chambers and found several of her attendants straining with a large piece of rubble that had fallen on an aging Turian, who had a sickly look about him.

"Out of the way!" Buffy snapped, blitzing past the attendants. Grabbing the piece of rubble, she hauled it into the air before throwing it away. Then the Consort rushed up to the old Turian.

"Septimus? Septimus!" she shouted, shaking the old Turian's body. "Don't die on me, you old fool!"

"Foolish, am I?" Septimus coughed. "Well... better a fool in love than a fool dishonored, I say." Then he went still, passing out.

Buffy checked him briefly before saying, "He's still alive, but we've gotta get him to a safe area. What happened?"

"He defended the Chambers from the Geth, singlehandedly," the Consort said, almost reverently.

"Tough bastard, ain't he?" Buffy muttered reverently. "All right, I'll get him to safety and you guys follow..." and here, she gestured vaguely at the Turian in medium C-Sec armor, "...what's-his-name back to the safe zone. Let's try and avoid any more bad guys."

"Thank you, Buffy," the Consort said, bowing deeply in respect. "I know that you still feel guilty, but you and Willow did the right thing. Xander will prove that to you again today, I'm sure of it."

Buffy turned to regard the Consort with a deep frown, and with quite a bit of alarm. "Do I know you, lady?"

"Not yet, perhaps, but trust me when I say you and Miss Rosenberg gave a very special gift to the boy and he'll put it to good use."

The group was making best speed for shelter when Buffy saw the mass relay monument light up bright as hell.

That's not a good light is it?" Buffy asked.

Durand shook her head, "The first time it light up like that Saren's army came out."


	31. Citadel

Buffy had seen some strange things in her time, but the sight of an APC flying through the air after being ejected from a mini-Mass Relay sculpture? That was high on the list.

She ran up to the wrecked APC and watched as four people came spilling out of it. An Asari, a Krogan, and two familiar-looking humans.

"Shepard?" she sputtered. "What the Hell?"

"Summers?" Shepard groaned. "Great, just what I needed."

"Excuse me?" Buffy snapped, offended.

"Sorry, that came out wrong," Shepard groaned, holding up a hand to ward off her annoyance and impending migraine. "It's just that the last thing that I want to explain to Xander, assuming that any of us survives today, is how his sister ended up in the middle of a war zone."

"Sister-in-law," Buffy corrected, scoffing. "…and trust me, if anyone will understand the weird coincidence of me being here in the middle of a Geth invasion? It's Xander. Now what the Hell are you doing here?"

Shepard was about to answer when Anderson joined them, and she noticed that Lieutenant Durand was accompanying her former Captain.

Saluting her mentor, Shepard formally reported, "Sir, I'm sorry to report that I couldn't reach Saren before he could launch his assault."

Anderson held up a hand. "Shepard, the fact that you're still on his trail even now tells me everything I need to know."

"Not what I need to know," Buffy butted in. "Where's Xander?"

"Back on the _Normandy_, which should be in the Andura Sector," Shepard shrugged. "By now, he should be at a rendezvous point with Admiral Hackett and his reinforcements, the Fifth Fleet. The plan is for me to open the Relays so that the cavalry can come to our rescue."

Buffy just shook her head. "Lady, I know from plans, and they always change. Especially when Xander's involved."

"Sit-rep, Commander." Anderson ordered.

Shepard came to attention. "The Citadel's a giant Mass Relay, sir; one that's normally kept inactive by the Keepers. Saren's about to activate it, however, and if he does that... well, the Reapers invade, and it's 'game over'. We've gotta get up to the Council Chambers; there's some kind of master control up there."

Anderson nodded. "The elevators have been locked down, so the only way that you're getting up there is through the service corridors."

"Those corridors will be crawling with Geth and Krogan, Commander." Durand reminded, adding, "...and there's NO atmo in any of them."

"Which means sealed hardsuits and soaking up enemy fire, for most of the trip." Shepard grunted.

"You need backup?" Buffy asked.

"I'd love some, but that outfit you're sporting doesn't look like it can be pressurized." Shepard sighed.

"Damn!" Buffy snapped her fingers in hindsight. "I KNEW that I should've accessorized better."

"I could still use your help down here, if you don't mind, Miss Summers." Anderson added, and Buffy nodded.

"As soon as I get the Relays opened, I'll unlock the elevators. I'm not sure if I'll need help at that point, but if you've got cavalry to spare... then you might want to bring 'em running."

"…and you're sure that Xander's safe?" Buffy asked skeptically.

Shepard looked at Buffy for a while before replying, "Xander's as safe, as anyone in war ever is." The ageless Slayer recognized that grim look in Shepard's eyes all too well; she'd worn it a time or two for herself.

"If all goes according to plan," Durand muttered. "...he'll be riding in with reinforcements."

"Then it's our job to make sure that there's something left for him to save." Buffy added, looking at Shepard. Then she puffed a brief, bitter laugh. "it's funny. Normally, I'm the one rushing off to fight the Big Bad while Xander's on the sidelines."

"In a fight like this, there's no such thing as sidelines." Shepard said grimly.

"You'd better get moving, Commander," Anderson said quietly. "We'll hold the fort down here."

Shepard saluted the older man again. "On the way, sir."

"Joker?"

"Kinda busy here, Xander," the _Normandy_'s pilot sounded harried.

"The next time I get the brilliant idea for us to fly INTO a warzone? Could you remind me to shut the Hell up?"

"Xander, if you ever have an idea this insane again..." Joker snapped, "I am personally invoking the right to shoot you."

Then the ship shuddered, as Joker banked hard to avoid another Geth Dropship.

The comm buzzed. "This is Executor Goran, _Vigilance_-actual. What in the spirits are you doing back here, Shepard?"

"Vigilance-actual, this is Sergeant Harris," Xander said into the com. "Shepard's aboard the Citadel, trying to stop Saren."

"Saren is doubtlessly aboard that Geth dreadnought," Goran snapped. "As long as we keep him-"

Then Xander interrupted him, furious. "Goran, Saren's on the Citadel right now! That dreadnought is a spirits-be-damned Reaper! And if you don't stop screwing around, then you and everyone else out here's gonna die!"

"Xander, Sovereign's moving," Joker reported.

"I've got no time for you," Goran said dismissively. "_Normandy_, pull back and consider yourselves under arrest after this is all over."

Xander gave up and cut the channel in favor of another one. "_Madrid_-actual, come back!" he barked. "Hobbs, please respond!"

"Hobbs here!" a harried-sounding Coleman Hobbs answered.

"Listen to me!" Xander shouted. "We're telling you the truth! If you don't pull back, then you and the rest of the fleet will die! Hobbs, listen to me!"

Hobbs stared at the screen, at the dreadnought that was coming at them hard. Every strategy that he knew all said that the dreadnought should be slowing down, that the Turian's established defensive net would keep it hemmed in.

Well, that's what the text books said, but Coleman Hobbs also had his little brother Reggie's letters home. If nothing else, Reggie had been clear about one thing; his mission aboard the Normandy was going to rewrite a ton of the textbooks.

He spun around to his helmsman. "You heard the man!" he roared. "Pull us back! Get us out of here!"

The SSV _Madrid_ swerved at the last minute and was thus spared the force of Sovereign bulldozing though the defensive grid. At his station, however, Xander still saw six ships being slapped aside like they were toys, a number of which promptly exploded. The few that survived Sovereign's inexorable march were promptly cut to shreds by Geth ships, swarming like angry insects.

"_Vigilance_, pull back!" Xander bellowed. "Goddamnit, Goran, turn your ship! Use your armor plating, we can-" But he was interrupted by Geth ships surrounding the Vigilance, pounding it relentlessly.

The Turian cruiser's kinetic barriers began shimmering in protest. There was only so much damage that a properly-aligned kinetic barrier was equipped to handle; so once it failed, hot plasma would begin eating away at the Vigilance's hull. The deadly equation of internal systems damage plus hull breaches summed up to the eventual doom to the two hundred-plus souls serving aboard her right now; two hundred Turians who didn't deserve to die because their commanding officer had been lured into the hubris of underestimating Saren's viciousness by the Council's arrogant complacency.

"Joker, you gotta get us over there!" Xander barked.

Beside him, Joker's hands danced across his holographic op-panels, like a pianist at the keyboard of a Steinway. "I'm on it," Joker snapped, promptly banking the _Normandy_ hard. The look of intense concentration on his face reminded Xander of another member of his adopted family. Hell, Oz and Joker even looked exactly alike as they played their chosen instrument.

Garrus' voice issued over the com system, using an external channel to the _Vigilance_. "Goran, come around to three-two-two, that should allow the _Normandy_ to-" but he was interrupted by a Geth ship firing an explosive slug that caused a glancing blow to the _Vigilance_. The comline was cut off, and lightning danced down the side of the Turian cruiser's armor.

Joker made the _Normandy_ slide effortlessly around the attacking Geth ship before seeming to stop and turn on a dime, swinging the whole ship. Then the prototype stealth frigate came screaming back around, coming in from behind the Geth ships that were raining blue plasma down upon the hull of the _Vigilance_.

"Garrus, buddy, I'm giving you fire control," Joker said. "Bring the hurt."

"Consider it brought," Garrus snarled as he pressed several keys on the interface board. The _Normandy_ shuddered as its mass accelerator spit out a charged bolt that slammed into the Geth ship, shearing it in half. Two more Geth ships died, ripping themselves apart as the Vigilance launched disruptor torpedoes that tore into their armored flesh and balls of fire to blossom as internal explosions consumed their vaguely-insectoid shapes.

"Another one on our ass!" Xander reported out loud.

"Can you take it, Xander?" Garrus shouted, the tactical system still resetting after his brutal assault on it.

"Bringing GARDIAN arrays online!" Xander answered. "I love big guns, and I cannot lie! You other brothers might deny…" he sang happily, and off-tune, as laser fire burned across the hull of the pursuing Dropship. Joker winced as his immortal, and apparently tone-deaf, co-pilot happily mauled the lyrics of a classic song to death. Cousin Daniel would be spinning in his grave.

The Geth ship's hull exploded as the laser bursts danced into it. But even as it died, the ship launched several metallic disruptor torpedoes, each of them capable of punching a hole right though the stealth vehicle's hull.

But the Geth were up against Sunnydale High's King of Missile Command. Xander's gamer pride would not allow him to lose to the Geth, especially now that he was essentially playing the game in real life. The GARDIAN lasers skidded over each torpedo, igniting them long before any of them could reach the Normandy's skin.

"_Vigilance_, you're clear," Garrus barked into the external com. "I say again, you're clear!" When he received no answer, the former detective shouted, "Damn it all, Goran, come on! Talk to me!"

Another, somewhat lighter, voice came over the line. "Vakarian? Spirits be praised, it is you!"

Now that was a voice that he could never forget. "Arianna?" Garrus sputtered. "What are you doing aboard the _Vigilance_?"

"Same thing I'm always trying to do; prove to everyone that I'm better then the great Garrus Vakarian," she said scornfully. "I thought that I had the advantage when you decided to be a cop. Then you went and joined the most famous human in the galaxy! You always were an attention-seeking-" an explosion cut her off.

"Ari, is Goran-"

"...dead. A plasma conduit blew the command podium," Arianna replied. "So I'm in charge now. Whatever you and those humans are trying to do, you've got my support."

The com signal cut out as the Vigilance swerved away.

Xander leaned back in his seat. "So, Ari… ex-girlfriend of yours, Garrus?" he asked.

"That would imply that we dated." Garrus deadpanned over the internal com. "We kinda skipped the dating part of the dating, and went straight to the fun stuff. "

"Really? How'd you manage to pull that one off?" Xander was intrigued in spite  
of himself.

"Nine rounds of full-contact sparring." The rogue Turian sounded immensely proud of himself.

"Nine rounds?" Joker snorted. "You're kidding."

"I had reach, but she had flexibility." Garrus explained.

"So, how exactly did you go from fighting her to... well, not fighting her?" Xander asked delicately.

"That would be because of Round Ten," Garrus explained. "Held in her quarters afterwards. Again, I had reach, but she had flexibility."

Xander shook his head. "It's ALWAYS the quiet ones. Always."

"She's not THAT quiet," Garrus replied, sounding confused.

"I wasn't talking about HER, Garrus." Xander deadpanned.

They were interrupted by the sight of the Citadel Wards closing in around the giant dreadnought Sovereign.

"The Wards are closing in!" Joker reported through the internal coms.

"What the Hell just happened, Garrus?" Xander asked.

"Emergency protocol; if the station is ever attacked, it can seal itself in for ease of defense," the former C-Sec agent explained. "Of course, the attacker isn't supposed to be INSIDE the arms when they close."

"Saren..." Xander breathed. "Boss-lady hasn't reached him yet, then."

"We've got an assload of Geth out here, Xander," Joker lamented. "...and there's gonna be even more inside!"

"Maybe we can get a message to C-Sec, and tell 'em to be on the lookout." Xander mused.

"Naw, C-Sec will have its hands full just keeping the civilian population alive," Garrus instantly debunked Xander's nascent idea. "Shepard wont' get any help from Pallin or Chellick, assuming that any of them are still alive. "

"Goddamn Geth," Joker cursed. "...you'd think that the Quarians would've thought to install a freakin' off-switch or something."

Xander's eyes widened as he realized something. "An off switch... Joker, you're a genius!" Then he unstrapped himself from the chair of his console and ran towards the elevator.

"Where the Hell are you going, Xander?" Joker yelled, having heard the distinct clicking sound of an unbuckling seat belt.

"I'm gonna find you that off-switch! Keep an open comm channel. Tell Tali that I'm on my way down to Engineering and get my workstation all heated up and ready!"

Garrus watched him run toward the back of the CIC and the elevators below. Turning back to Joker, he wondered aloud, "Do you think that he can pull it off?"

"If we get out of this alive, remind me to let you read some old family journals," Joker replied. "According to an ancestral cousin of mine, these are the moments when Xander's at his best."

*****

The Ground Team fought through a wave after wave of Geth. As one fell, two more would rise up, and as they were put down, a Krogan would appear to seal the breach in the wall of cannon fodder that Saren had set up in order to keep them distracted long enough for him to finish his Hellish task.

"This is getting us nowhere fast! We have to get to Saren!" Shepard shouted as she blasted several more Geth apart.

"No, YOU need to get to Saren!" Wrex snarled. "WE can hold them here!"

"Wrex is right, ma'am!" Ashley added, shouting above the gunfire. "This is a natural choke point! You flank them while we draw their fire, and you should be able to reach Saren!"

Shepard grimaced. She hated the idea of leaving them behind, but stopping Saren had to be their highest priority; stopping the renegade Turian by any means necessary.

Shepard looked at Liara, who gazed back at her with worry in her blue eyes. "Come back to me," the young Asari whispered. "THAT is a direct order."

"Ah-ffirmitive," Shepard whispered, giving her girlfriend's hand a squeeze before heading off to the right.

With her departure, the rest of the Ground Team redoubled their fire. They did anything and everything that they could try and distract the Geth. Meanwhile, Shepard was now using the many chamber pillars of the Council Chambers as both cover and shield.

Finally reaching the main staircase leading up to the Master Control Unit, Shepard steeled herself for the final confrontation. But, of all the scenarios that Shepard had planned for confronting Saren for the last time... the one that took up the least room in her head was the whole 'he's ignoring me because he's talking to himself' shtick.

Running up the stairs of the Council Chambers, only to find him staring at the Master Control Unit, was something that left her stunned and uncertain. The instrument in question was a wide holographic display that sat near the dais from which the Council presided over galactic affairs.

The placement was obvious; the means to usher in the galaxy's doom was sitting near the seat of galactic power.

The Turian was looking at what he was doing... no, he was staring fixedly at his hand and whispering to himself. Had he been there, Xander would've told her that Saren was speaking in a dialect that was native to the Turian homeworld of Palaven.

"You can't shut him out anymore, can you?" she said from behind him.

Saren glanced up at her and then laughed uncharacteristically before looking away. "Shut it out?" he drawled inquisitively. "Shepard, shutting it out stopped being an option a long time ago."

"You know exactly what's happening to you." Shepard said calmly. "Xander told me about Desolas. I gotta say…" she mused aloud, shrugging noncommittally. "…if I'd been in your place, I would've done the exact same thing."

Huddled over and shuddering, Saren now reminded Shepard of Fai-Dan. But the tiny swell of pity that filled her was instantly drowned out by the knowledge that this whole spectacle was his doing.

Fai-Dan had been an innocent victim.

Saren had parted ways with innocence a long time ago.

He was looking at her. "You think it's so easy, don't you?" the rogue Turian sneered. "You can't imagine what it's like, Shepard. Every fear, every hatred, every love... and the voice seeps in and twists it all."

She frowned at the implications as he kept on talking. "I thought that Desolas was weak, but weakness or strength is irrelevant." The bitterness of that realization made Shepard try something different, for the first time in years.

"Saren, listen to me," she tried to reason with him. "It's not too late. Let me open the Relays, we can still beat him."

Saren brought up a Geth pulse rifle, pointing it at her. "NO, WE CAN'T!" he roared. "He won't let US do anything! I thought that I could block it out, to find a way to control it!" Then he brought up his other hand, locking it around his gun hand and dragging it away from her.

Could this broken puppet, barely in control of his own body, really be the same person whose taunts and viciousness had lead her down the road to this moment? From the way he was acting, Saren hadn't been in full control of his own flesh. Not for a long time, apparently…

"How in Hell did you let it get this far?" she demanded.

Saren struggled visibly, his voice straining with effort. "I... let... implant." Thus, all of the blocks suddenly fell into place.

"You let Sovereign implant you," she deadpanned in disbelief. "I'd ask if you were insane, but I'd say THAT'S painfully obvious. Don't you see that he's controlling you through the implants? Indoctrinating you wasn't enough, he had to make you a damn puppet!"

"Submission... or extinction..." the Turian panted, now openly wrestling with his gun hand. "Only... choice..."

"You don't get to lie to yourself anymore," she snarled. "You could've fought, you could've resisted! You could've nuked the goddamn thing the second you found it!"

"P-p... power... promised... power..." Saren grunted, slamming his rogue hand against the floor in an attempt to get it to relinquish his weapon.

"You saw what that artifact did to your brother AND to those other people!" she snarled. "You can't sit there and tell me that you really believed that you'd be stronger, can you?"

But looking at Saren, she realized that he had made that exact assumption; he'd thought that his brother was weak to have fallen to the Reaper artifact's machinations, and that tiny thread of arrogance was what Sovereign had pulled on in order to unravel him into this broken-down... thing.

He struggled to his feet and lurched towards the Master Control Unit. He seemed surprised that he could still move.

So Shepard was shocked when Saren jammed his gun against his own kneecap and pulled the trigger. The bark of the pistol filled the air and he collapsed beneath the Master Control Unit with a howl of pain.

"I...! AM...! Stronger!" he roared, almost incoherent in his agony.

"Then prove it," Shepard sneered. "We both know that Sovereign can still work you like a puppet, as long as that crap is inside you."

With those words, Saren dragged the barrel of the gun to his own head.

"No, Shepard..." he rasped, wheezing from the pain of his shot kneecap. "I'll be... his puppet... long after... I'm dead... but... it'll be... the p-puppet... that you'll kill."

The bark of the pistol shattered the chamber's deathly silence, as Saren blew his own brains out. His body fell from the dais, through a glass enclosure into a garden below, and experienced a fresh postmortem impalement on a large piece of glass.

Shepard walked up to the edge of the platform from where Saren had fallen. Looking down, she saw the rogue Turian's body sprawled on a grassy hill, impaled on a giant shard of glass.

Liara ran up to her, followed by Ashley, who had Wrex still leaning on her. The old Krogan looked pretty beat-up, having absorbed a lot of gunfire, but he still managed a sneer. "Took you long enough, Shepard," he rumbled.

"Ashley, if the great battlemaster can do without you for a few minutes, I don't suppose you could run down there and make sure that's bastard dead?"

"With pleasure, ma'am." Ashley said, running off. Liara followed her, wanting her own sense of closure.

Dropping down to the garden, with Liara following close behind her, she looked around briefly before noticing its new decoration. Above her, Shepard called down to her, asking out loud, "Chief, how's it feel to be the winner?"

Ashley looked up at her CO before walking over to the Saren's body, firing two shots into his skull. "For Kaidan... for Hobbs..." she whispered.

She turned back to Shepard. "Winning feels good, ma'am," she called back. "I think that I'm starting to like winning."

"I like winning too, Williams," Shepard saluted the Gunnery Chief irreverently. "I like winning a lot."

Wrex joined her at the Master Control Unit. "You got control of the station yet, Battlemaster?"

"I got full control," Shepard nodded. "I'm opening the arms of the station and the com relays."

But as soon the com relays opened, the sounds of battle could be heard from outside, mostly as explosions.

"Is anyone out there?" a female voice shouted desperately. "This is the _Destiny Ascension_! We're under heavy fire and requesting immediate assistance! Main drives are offline! Kinetic barriers, down to forty percent! Suffering multiple hull breaches on all decks! The Council is aboard, I repeat, the Council is on board!"

Then she heard something that simultaneously chilled her and thrilled her; Joker replying, "_Destiny Ascension_, this is SSV _Normandy_! Standby, we're on our way!"

"What the Hell!"

***

***

"What the Hell's taking Shepard so long?" Garrus groaned as the Normandy shuddered around him.

"I'm starting to wonder about that myself." Joker snapped as he dodged another  
Geth dropship.

"Could she still be alive?" Pressly wondered, from his command post in near the Galaxy Map.

"She's alive," Xander said, over the com from where he was currently down in Engineering. "I'd bet against God before I'd bet against that woman; she's alive." The confidence in his voice was infectious.

Garrus nodded as he focused fire on another Geth dropship.

Then a call came in. "Is anyone out there?" a female voice shouted desperately. "This is the _Destiny Ascension_! We're under heavy fire and requesting immediate assistance! Main drives are offline! Kinetic barriers, down to forty percent! Suffering multiple hull breaches on all decks! The Council is aboard, I repeat, the Council is on board!"

Those last words chilled his fringe. Torn between his loyalty to his new friends and his cultural loyalty to the Citadel, Garrus asked, "What do we do?"

"What we get paid to do, Garrus," Joker said grimly. "Kill the bad guys and save the day."

He leaned over and opened a channel. "_Destiny Ascension_, this is SSV _Normandy_!  
Standby, we're on our way!"

Suddenly the comlink buzzed and Shepard's voice… Shepard's very, very angry-sounding voice, came out over the comm. Joker was suddenly grateful that he had a few hundred miles of airless void between himself and his commander. That thought was quickly followed by the realization that Shepard was eventually going to come back aboard and that he couldn't move very fast.

"_Normandy_, this is Ground Team!" Shepard shouted, shock and disbelief and not a bit of anger in her voice. "What the Hell are you guys doing out there?"

"Shepard! Thank God!" Joker sounded very stressed. "Commander, it's been absolute Hell out here!"

"Joker, you're supposed to be in the Andura Sector with the rest of the Arcturus fleet!" Shepard was almost shrieking at this point.

"Hi, boss," Xander cut in, and it all suddenly fell into place. "How you doin' down there?" The nonchalance in his voice didn't conceal the stress that he had to be feeling, but it only managed to piss her off even further.

"Xander, what the Hell is MY ship doing in a middle of a Geth invasion with no backup from the Fifth Fleet?" she roared.

"We had some transportation issues from Ilos!" he snapped back, instantly sobering her.

On her side of their conversation, Shepard was forced to acknowledge Xander's irritation. If Sovereign could lock out the Relay at the Citadel, then he'd probably done so at the Pangaea Expanse as well.

His next words, however, perked her right back up. "But we still managed to send a signal off to Admiral Hackett, so if you could unlock the Relays, then the Fifth Fleet should show up with no problem!"

"I'm opening the Relays now!" Shepard barked decisively. "Make sure that the _Destiny Ascension_'s secure, before dealing with Sovereign!"

"We're on that, boss, but what about Saren?"

"He's having a bit of a lie-down right now, but we should have no further problems from him."

Xander winced, he remembered all too well that tone of confidence after a big-bad went down. That was just before they got back up to come at you again, twice as hard. Still, there were some things that even the great Commander Shepard had to learn on her own.

The connection to Shepard abruptly cut off and Joker tried fruitlessly to restore it.

Then another channel came in. "Normandy, this is SSV _Madrid_!" Coleman Hobbs  
shouted. "We've got your back!"

"Understood, _Madrid_!" Joker yelled back. "Run close-combat attack patterns! We're gonna have to get eyeball-to-eyeball with these bastards!"

"Are you nuts, _Normandy_?" Hobbs squawked. "We won't last long at that range!"

"You'll last longer than our Turian friends did against Sovereign!" the brittle-boned pilot snapped. "They won't fire on each other! So if you turn your armor-plated side to the vessels, you'll have more of a fighting chance!"

All they had to do now was hold the line and wait.

The crew watched as the Citadel opened wide, revealing Sovereign clinging to the Citadel Tower like an obscene insect.

"Xander, whatever you're going to do, I'd do it right the Hell now!" Joker shouted. "The _Destiny Acension_'s taking damage and Hackett's forces will be flying into this furball in just a few seconds!"

Down in Engineering, Tali feverishly pored through the Geth system data with Xander next to her. Flicking through command strings, decades and even centuries old, searching for that one line that he seemed to be looking for.

"Xander, Geth can't be hacked, not permanently," Tali said, for what had to be the umpteenth time. "They restore themselves from archival copies within a few minutes."

"That's 'cause when we hack 'em, we're introducing new data; junk data that the system auto-scrubs," Xander quickly lectured. "What we're looking for here? That's archival commands; something the system won't scrub because it's buried so deeply in the system that it'll be seen as a local command. The real trick will be to broadcast the signal so that every ship gets it, at the same time."

Tali looked thoughtful. Then an idea hit her, and she perked up. "We could reflect it off the nebula's cloud cover."

"Sorry?" Xander asked.

"Xander, have you ever seen a sun in the Serpent Nebula yet? It's always lit up, bright as day, around the Citadel," Tali lectured, smiling at the opportunity to teach Xander something. "That's because there's subatomic particles, within in the nebula's cloud cover that reflect the light of the Citadel back upon it. If we use the _Normandy_'s heat sinks to broadcast the signal, then the resulting wave will hit every Geth ship in the nebula all at once. None of them will have time to react to the shutdown command."

"Tali, you're a genius!" Xander declared as he began tapping away at his console. "I'll start reprogramming the sink system, and you keep trying to find the archival command!" After getting to work, it only took a few minutes for Xander to do some quick and dirty jury-rigging with his omnitool and get the cobbled-together system finally working.

"You do realize that we're going to burn out the entire IES stealth system by doing this, right?" Tali asked, rechecking her programming a final time.

"Well, if we burn it out, then maybe they'll finally fix the heatsink system," Xander said dismissively. "It's like a Goddamn sauna in here every time we use it."

Then Xander radioed up to the bridge, "Joker, tell everyone to batten down the hatches, 'cuz we're about to do something hideously stupid!"

"Go for it!" Joker insisted. "Admiral Hackett just showed up with the Fifth Fleet, and the Geth are already giving him a beating! We've already lost three... no, four ships!"

Xander nodded. "All right, here goes nothing! Tali, hit it!"

"Broadcasting signal!" Tali cried.

"Rerouting though the IES!" Xander reported.

Anyone watching the SSV Normandy would've seen an amazing sight; a shell of faintly-luminous energy blowing outwards from the stealth frigate's hull. The signal spread out and out, impacting on the nebulous cloud cover reflecting back and forth among the clouds.

Suddenly, every single Geth ship stopped, dead in space. But it wasn't just every Geth ship in the Serpent Nebula; no, all of the Geth troops on the Citadel suddenly stopped in their tracks, with the headlights on their heads darkening.

The drop in the sound of battle was dramatic.

"You guys did it!" Joker yelled. "You hacked the whole damn Geth Fleet!"

Xander and the Quarian whooped in glee as they hugged each other. Looking down at her, at where her eyes appeared to be, Xander shrugged before leaning in and kissing her faceplate. Then he flushed and said, "How's about, we don't mention I did that to Ash? I'd like to not be shot."

"I think that I'd be in just as much trouble with the Chief, as you would be," the feisty little Quarian quipped.

"I seriously doubt that, Tali," Xander chuckled before pulling himself away, heading for CIC and leaving Tali behind in engineering.

Inexplicably, she reached up and touched the part of her face-mask that Xander had kissed. She could still see the impression that his lips had left on the mask's visor, and felt a odd tingle run through her whole body. That tingle made her wonder if she'd accidentally downloaded that sense-stim application and had forgotten about it.

***

Aboard the Citadel, Durand and Anderson were standing back-to-back and fighting back wave after wave of Geth. Suddenly, a wave of energy swept their position and every one of the synthetics suddenly stopped dead in their tracks.

Buffy, surrounded by the remains of what looked like hundreds of destroyed Geth, reached out and pushed at the Juggernaut that she'd been dismembering. Its armless body fell over, without even a whine.

"Shepard did it." Anderson whispered.

"We won?" Buffy asked. When Anderson nodded, she deadpanned, "Yay for us, then." Sighing, her voice thick with exhaustion. It had been a long day for the ageless Slayer. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going up there. Little Miss Spectre might still need our help."

One of Durand's people offered up her helmet so that Buffy could seal and pressurize her own combat suit. The elevators were still locked down and, while the Geth were motionless, Saren's indoctrinated Krogan were still a threat.

"We should be careful," Durand muttered. "…and, Miss Summers, your speed and strength might make mêlée combat a viable option with the Geth. But the rulebook is clear; never try close-combat with a Krogan, because it's suicide."

A roar distracted them all. A single Krogan rose up from the debris that had knocked it unconscious. The mindless warrior charged the group, with Anderson and Durand pouring gunfire at its thick hide. Buffy whipped off her long coat, wrapping the heavy weighted garment around the charging Krogan's head before she used her superior positioning to swing the Krogan around and slamming it headfirst into a wall. Bouncing clear as the indoctrinated beast staggered, Buffy balled up a dainty-looking fist and sent one of her stronger punches rocketing into the Krogan's armored brow. The Krogan stared at her in confusion before its eyes rolled back and it fell to the ground, deadweight.

"No mêlée for a Krogan. That's the rule, huh?" Buffy asked, ignoring the dumbfounded stares from both Anderson and Lieutenant Durand. "I'm not really a rules kind of girl, just so you know." With that, she wandered toward the Citadel Tower.

Durand watched her leave, aghast. "I honestly don't know if I wish that we had a few more like her running around, or if I'm grateful that she's the only one."

Andeson nodded. "Come on. I have every faith that Shepard's still alive and kicking, and I intend to make sure that she stays that way."

"I wonder what happened to Saren." Durand mused.

***

***

"He's having a bit of a lie-down right now, but we should have no further problems from him."

It was as if the universe was listening, as a glow of crimson blossomed from beneath her. Shepard didn't have time to notice how the com system cut out. She was too busy staring at the arcs of crimson lightning dancing across Saren's body, as it began to convulse and spasm before hauling itself off of the ground.

Much of the flesh from Saren's corpse had been flayed away by the crimson lightning, leaving behind a skeletal mechanical monstrosity that stumbled across the grass with its first steps. Ashley fired round after round at the grotesque cybernetic revenant as it lurched forward, claws springing from his hands and feet, and red lightning firing from the hollow spaces where its eyes should have been.

"**I am… Sovereign!**" the creature roared. "**…and this station…is mine!**" just before lashing out and hitting Ashley hard enough to send her flying into a nearby wall.

The station shuddered under some kind of impact, causing the platform above her to suddenly collapse and send both Wrex and Shepard falling into the garden below.

The Sovereign-Revenant picked up Liara and hurled her away, energy crackling around its fist as a powerful discharge blasted the four of them.

"Scatter! Don't give him a single target!" Shepard snarled, rolling free and firing her assault rifle in order to try and keep the thing focused on her.

She was desperately trying to get Sovereign on her and forget about poor Liara, who was struggling to pull herself off the ground from where she'd been thrown.

Wrex roared as he charged the Sovereign-Revenant, but the cybernetic monstrosity picked him up in mid stride and hurled him into a pillar that collapsed under the force of the impact and his weight.

"**Your extinction is inevitable.**" Sovereign rumbled coolly. "**Submit, and your species may yet prove itself… useful.**" Shepard responded by shooting at him.

So Sovereign lurched over to her, dragging her from off the ground where she'd fallen and instead pinning her up against the wall.

"**Death is the end.**" Sovereign sneered as it leaned Saren's skull into her personal space. "**The cycle cannot be broken. Die now, or die another day, it matters not. Because you still die.**"

"You... first," she gurgled, jamming the barrel of her assault rifle against its body and pulling the trigger until the heat sink popped.

Screaming in frustration and rage, Shepard battered at the cybernetic revenant with the butt of her rifle. Inconceivably, the creature seemed affected by the blows, stumbling back.

As Sovereign dropped her and lurched away, Shepard suddenly realized something about its disorientation.

"It's dividing attention between us and the Alliance fleet!" she shouted. "Hit it hard, and keep hitting it for as long as you can!"

***

Xander slid back into his seat next to Joker. "Any word from the Boss?" he asked.

"Other than the Relays opening, nothing." Joker grunted. "It's a bitch-and-a-half just trying to stay alive out here."

"Garrus, give me the GARDIAN lasers again," Xander said decisively. "You take the torpedoes and the main gun. Let's see if we can't take this bastard down."

Without the Geth to run interference, Sovereign had the full might of the remaining Citadel fleets to face. But that prospect didn't seem to distress the hulking monstrosity in the slightest. The huge dreadnought began extending its tentacles out to the side. A mighty spear of superheated metal, accelerated to a significant fraction of lightspeed, stabbed out and punched though the one of the attacking Alliance cruisers.

"My God " Pressley whispered, "That was the Jakarta ...after a single hit."

"We gotta wear it down!" Xander swore, frustrated at the one-hit kill.

"Hit it all at once!" Garrus suggested. "Maybe we can short out its kinetic barriers!"

Hobbs came on the line. "I'm firing disruptor torpedoes. following that up with a combined attack might make a dent in this thing."

The _Madrid_ came about and fired a massive salvo at Sovereign. The disruptor torpedoes hit Sovereign's kinetic barriers hard enough to make them seethe and pulse. Xander fired a salvo from the _Normandy_'s GARDIAN array, raking Sovereign's hull where the Madrid's attacks had landed. Sparks and tiny explosions across the vast expanse of its armor gave way to a sudden bout of hope. "We're punching though it!" He yelled.

Suddenly he saw the _Madrid_ surge forward. Alarmed, he shouted over the com, "Hobbs, pull back! You're too-"

But his warning came too late. Sovereign lashed out and fired another of its hellish weapons, and the _Madrid_ was skewered from stem to stern, with its bridge exploding in a bright flash of superheated gas.

"Hobbs!" Xander shouted futilely. "HOBBS!"

"Spirits guide them safely to your side." Garrus whispered.

Joker dodged another blast from Soverign even the near-miss shorted out a bank of conduits and Joker cursed to see the GARDIAN lasers offline.

"Xander, we need the GARDIAN array back online!" Joker snapped.

The immortal Scooby just sat in the copilot seat, numb. That is, until Joker pressed a com button and caused an unholy squeal of feedback to echo. Snapping out of it, he looked over at the brittle-boned pilot, who snarled, "We're still in it up to our asses, Xander! So if you don't keep your head in the game, then we're ALL gonna end up like Hobbs!"

Xander's hands danced along his holodisplays. "Rerouting systems Xander replied, "...And we have GARDIAN's back online," He shouted triumphantly.

"Garrus, how we doing for loadout?" Joker asked.

"I think I've burned out a ton of conduits, but…" a quick scan of his display made the former C-Sec officer grin. "Yeah, I've still got full weapons."

"Then let's show this bastard how we do things in Citadel Space!" Joker growled.

***

Shepard stared up at the shattered ceiling. Weapons fire still roared around her as a shadowy figure moved into her view, its red eyes glowing with an ancient and terrible power.

"You have pretty eyes." she whispered.

"**Why do you struggle against the inevitable?**" the revenant's voice echoed.

"That's who we are," she muttered weakly. "That's what we do."

"**The Turian fought,**" Sovereign pointed out, sneering. "**The Turian struggled, and what did it gain him in the end?**"

Shepard snickered, and then started laughing maniacally. "We've already beaten you. We've already won."

"**I think not**," Sovereign said coldly. "**Your civilizations will fall.**"

Shepard decided to take a page out of Xander's book and started taunting Sovereign. "You only got here because of Saren, an organic," she hissed. "Your plans were beaten by the Prothean scientists who figured out your most guarded secrets and used them to fight you."

The cybernetic revenant's eyes seemed to… narrow, at her insinuations, but didn't talk. "Right now an army, made up of four races that hate and distrust each other, have united in a common interest - beating you."

"**We are beyond you. We are beyond everything. What can you do to challenge us?**"

"You aren't beyond one thing…" Shepard said matter-of-fact, her lips curled back to reveal a death's-head smile.

"Physics 101," the Butcher of Torfan said flatly. "Did you know that everything in existence, including that body that you hijacked, has a freezing point?"

As Sovereign tried to ponder the apparent non-sequitur, Shepard shoved a cooked cryo-grenade inside the Ravenent-Saren's body before kicking away to roll across the grass.

The blast was small, but the effect was immediate. The revenants' body was quickly coated in hoarfrost.

Liara screamed in defiance as she picked up a chunk of pillar with her biotics and then hurled it at the statue, even as the rest of the Ground Team began shooting the frozen effigy.

The revenant-statue exploded, and the surprisingly-intact head fell to the floor and rolled to a stop at Shepard's feet.

"**The cycle… the cycle… ca- can- cannot b-be broken,**" the ancient warship said haltingly. "**We are coming.**"

Shepard crushed Saren's desiccated skull underfoot. "…and I'll be waiting." she hissed.

***

Xander saw it first; the pulsing and seething of Sovereign's kinetic barrier dropping. He ran a quick scan to confirm.

"Holy Mother of God…" he managed. "…its barriers just went down! Bless you, boss!" Turning to the _Normandy_'s pilot, the immortal Scooby barked, "Joker, go!"

"Hard on my flank, people!" Joker shouted out loud.

Admiral Hackett's rough voice snapped, "Hit Sovereign with everything we've got!" and the remainder of the Fifth Fleet began firing on the listing Reaper hulk. Meanwhile, Joker brought the _Normandy_ around and made a dive for the dreadnought, hard and fast.

"Ahh, Joker? Aren't we coming in a little hot?" Xander hissed.

"I thought you didn't want to live forever," Joker teased, a savage grin on his face. "Garrus, hit it hard, buddy!"

Garrus tapped several keys, and the _Normandy_ emptied its ammunition reserves in short order. Every remaining disruptor torpedo and mass driver round were fired at Sovereign's body as Joker pulled the ship out of a stomach-churning dive, actually outrunning Garrus' shots as they impacted on the hull. Finally, the mass driver slug slammed straight through the listing warship. Xander couldn't help but think that Sovereign had been staked, and he watched as follow-up hits, from the remainder of the Fifth Fleet and even the _Vigilance_, perforated the ancient ship's hull and caused a huge explosion, with pieces arcing off in all directions.

As the crew of the _Normandy_ began whooping and cheering in celebration, Xander simply keyed open a new com-channel. "Hey, boss, are you seeing this?" he laughed. "We just laid a HUGE beatdown on that prehistoric son-of-a-bitch."

Xander blood then ran cold as he watched one of the huge chunks, from the destroyed Reaper, slam into the very top of the Citadel Tower and into the Council chambers.

"Shepard… come in, Shepard…" at this point, both Joker and Garrus had caught the urgency of his words and were now looking concerned. "C'mon, boss, quit screwing around."

But there was no response.

Xander swore in ancient Sumerian before turning to Joker and saying, "Get us down there, Joker! Get us down there yesterday!"


	32. Endgame

When they found Shepard's squad, they were still buried alive under one of Sovereign's legs. It had crashed through the window bringing half the ceiling down with it. Pulling them out from under the rubble proved to be a challenge; they'd have all been crushed, save for Liara managing to generate a powerful biotic barrier that protected the entire squad from the worst of the damage. Everyone that is, except for Shepard.

The Commander had been close to the window when the leg had crashed through. Liara, her biotics already stretched to the limit by the final fight with Sovereign, had nothing left over save for enough energy to protect a small area around her. The Commander had just been too far away. Even now, it was taking all she had just to hold the rubble at bay and to keep it from crushing the rest of the squad.

Anderson pulled them out, with Buffy helping all she could, but Xander stormed past them to find Shepard.

She was buried under a ton of rubble and when he pulled her out, she was pale and still.

Buffy just looked at her and shook her head. She'd seen too many bodies in her time.

"No. No…" Xander muttered. "…it wasn't supposed to be like this. She was supposed to survive. She's a champion, like you and Faith…" Sniffling once, he added softly, "She was supposed to make it through this."

"I'm sorry, Xander, but…"

"I shouldn't have listened to her," he said bitterly. "I should've argued with her. I would've survived being buried alive; I've done that standing on my head. Literally, if you remember that time in Cairo."

"It'll be okay," Buffy sighed, sitting down next to Xander with a weary groan of exertion. "We'll finish this for her. They know about the Reapers now, and we'll find them and take them out." Placing a supportive hand on his shoulder, she added, "We've beaten stuff like this before, remember?"

But Xander was obstinate. "There has to be a way to save her."

"The universe doesn't like when you screw with it, remember?" Buffy tried to warn him. "It always comes back to bite us in the ass."

"Yeah, well, the universe can kiss my ass. Joan Shepard could do so much more. She deserves that chance." Scoffing, he sat down next to her body from where he'd been kneeling. "All of the life I have, and all the life that I'm going to have… why do I get to live forever, and she gets crushed by falling garbage? That's not cool, Buffy, that's not right."

Xander leaned over and shoved on her chest, trying to push life back into Shepard's body with CPR. He seemed frenzied, and Buffy couldn't help but wonder if this is what he'd looked like on that fateful day so long ago.

Finally, he sat back, with a look of shattered defeat on his face. Buffy cursed a universe that could put an expression like that on Xander's face. He was the last person who should ever have given up; on anything, or anyone.

"She deserves better than this," he sighed bitterly.

Xander leaned down and kissed Shepard. It was pure instinct, unsullied by anything other than a sincere desire for Shepard to know that he loved her and didn't want to let her go. But he'd forgotten that the universe listens when we say and do things. Its response was dramatic; Buffy watched in shock as Shepard's entire body convulsed violently, and she gasped as life was forcefully returned to her, just before a coughing fit took her.

She looked around, and then up at a shocked Xander. Finally, she asked aloud, "Did… did you just kiss me, Xander?"

"Uh-um, I… ah…" he sputtered as he fell over himself in hesitation. "I might have done that, yes."

"I don't remember telling you that you could kiss me." Shepard said coolly.

"…and, right about now, I'm realizing how that might be perceived." the immortal Scooby groaned. "Kill me now."

"Tell you what, get me out from under all this crap, and I might not have to hurt you," she offered.

"I'd say you're letting him off easy." Buffy added, smirking at Shepard.

"Well, I'll admit that I'm biased. He's a friend," she shrugged noncommittally. "...and well, it wasn't that bad. Nice, really. Good technique, right amount of pressure, no spit… he loses points for not being a girl, mind you, but… hey, nobody's perfect."

"So, is he good?" Buffy asked, somewhat curious.

Shepard shrugged. "Well, he kisses better then Riley, I'll tell you that much."

"Wait, how do you know about-" Buffy jumped on the apparent non-sequitur. "Did Xander say something?"

"Say what?" Shepard demanded, staring up at the ageless Slayer from where she was still lying on the floor of the Council Chambers. "Riley kissed you and Faith and… and, for some reason, I can remember that like it happened to me."

"Like… a memory?" Buffy asked suspiciously.

"Oh, NO…" Xander groaned, realizing what he'd just done.

Frowning, Buffy then asked, "If I say… 'one girl in all the world,' what's the first thing that comes to your mind?"

"…a chosen one," Shepard replied automatically. "She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampire, demons and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number…"

"She is the Slayer." Buffy and Shepard chorused together.

"Uh, guys, we're about to have company. So I suggest we work this one out later," Xander whispered as he turned to the approaching rescuers before saying loudly, "Guess who we found?"

"What did he do to me?" Shepard hissed in an aside to Buffy.

"You may not think it, right now," the immortal Slayer replied, enigmatic amusement in her voice. "…but it's something wonderful."

**********

**Throne Room/End Titles **

Xander and Shepard stood in silence as the elevator took them up to the Council Chambers.

"A Slayer," Shepard sighed, for what might have been the hundredth time. "You made me a Slayer "

Xander grimaced. "I think that you're losing sight of the important part, boss. You had a chunk of Reaper fall on top of you and you're still alive."

"I'm not going to start running around and trying to kill demons, am I?"

Xander snorted. "Boss, you just destroyed an ageless supercomputer with delusions of grandeur and plans for galaxy-wide genocide. And even IF there were still vampires to slay, I'd say that you wouldn't have that much to worry about."

"What do you mean, no vampires?" she demanded. "What's the point of a vampire slayer if there are no vampires to slay?"

"I don't make the rules, boss, I just ignore them," he said dismissively. "Last vampire I know of? It died about… a hundred and seventy-five years ago, now."

Shepard's eyes closed in memory. "Calcutta, a few years after the Brawl… Buffy hunted it though the poor sections of the city." Then she glared at Xander again, a little put-off by his response of a quirked eyebrow. "By the way, that whole shared-memories thing? Is that going to keep happening?"

"It'll calm down eventually." Xander shrugged. "Just think of it as the price you pay for all the really cool optional extras."

"Such as?"

"Hello? Extra strength, speed, stamina, enhanced combat ability… a definite advantage, don't you think?" Xander said, in that occasional bout of airheaded condescension that he knew she hated. He'd been using that tone more often, ever since she'd found out that he was immortal. "And, can I just stress that the whole you-not-being-dead thing? That's kind of an important point, boss. To me, at least."

Shepard waved away his protest. "I get it. I'm not THAT upset at still being alive. In fact, in light of the special occasion and all, you can even call me JL. Just this once."

"Considering that half the galaxy refers to you almost exclusively by your last name, I'm surprised you even remember that you have a first and middle name."

She smiled at him, "So, I hear that you joined the salvage teams on the Madrid. Anything I need to know before al-Jilani brings it up in a interview?"

"Hobbs' parents," Xander answered. "They came to collect both Reggie and Coleman. I managed to recover the VI program that Tali made, but I just want to do something else. Coleman should be getting an award today not me."

"He, and everyone else who died during the battle, are getting honored as heroes," Shepard replied decisively. "Starting with today's ceremony."

"Half the Wards are still covered in wreckage, but the Council Chambers are repaired enough so that they can hold a damn awards ceremony," Xander sneered. "I don't know if that's funny or sad."

"It's good for morale," Shepard replied noncommittally.

"You want to know what's good for my morale?" the immortal Scooby grumbled. "What's good for my morale are the ten thousand Asari who owe the _Normandy_'s crew their lives, and are very grateful for that fact."

"Any of them show their gratitude to you yet?" Shepard asked dryly.

Xander snickered. "You see this ass?" he gestured to his butt. "The only way this ass could get more spoken for, is if it had a tattoo on it."

"Are you sure that Ashley's cool with things?" Shepard wondered.

"She's getting there," Xander shrugged. "It helps that she saw me turn down Matriarch Lidanya herself."

"You turned her down? Impressive," Shepard shrugged. "Scuttlebutt is that Lidanya's something of a freak… in bed."

"Really? Now I wish I'd hooked Joker up."

"Why didn't you?"

"Did you see the build on her?" he asked, incredulous. "Amazon doesn't even begin to come close to describing her. I thought she might break him in half… literally."

"He looked pretty happy chatting with their helmsmen." Shepard mused thoughtfully. Then she frowned as something occurred to her. "A little too happy, now that I think about it."

Xander snickered indulgently. "Joker may have met the only Maiden-stage Asari who's more into flying than he is. I think that she only wants him for his piloting skills."

But before Shepard could say anything else, the elevator stopped and its doors opened up to reveal Liara, Tali, and Ashley, all waiting for them. Liara threw her arms around Shepard, while Ashley greeted her man with a kiss before he gave Tali a hug.

"No arguments, Tali." Xander insisted. "You're coming on stage with us." When she stepped back and looked at him, her body language screaming incredulity, he added, "We wouldn't have beat Sovereign, or the Geth, if it wasn't for you. You should get some credit."

Shepard rolled her eyes. Xander had been having this argument with Tali for a day now, and Xander's charming stubbornness was slowly wearing down the Quarian's resistance.

"Tali, half the galaxy knows who you are anyways," Shepard argued. "You might as well let them know just how much they owe you their lives."

"A few months ago, half the people in that room would've wanted me to just go back to the Flotilla and disappear," the little Quarian lamented. "Now, I have people all wanting to be my friend, and give me work."

Ashley snorted. "Saving the galaxy from certain doom tends to improve people's opinions of you. Just look at what it did for this chucklehead." She elbowed Xander, who hugged her.

"It's good to be popular," Xander sighed theatrically. "You hear from your dad, Tali?"

"Apparently, there was some crisis in the Fleet that demanded his attention," she said, somewhat downcast. "…but my auntie Raan is here."

"Wait, WHAT?" Xander sputtered. "His daughter, his only daughter, is about to be honored by the entire galaxy!" he shouted, sweeping an arm around to indicate the Council Chambers in his anger. "He thinks that there's something MORE important than that?"

"You don't know my father, Xander," Tali explained. "As far as he's concerned, all of this is just validation of everything that he's always expected of me in the first place." Xander literally had no words for that, his mouth moving wordlessly in his shock.

"I saw your sister-in-law," Ashley commented, trying to change the subject. "She decided to stay for the awards ceremony after all."

Xander smiled. "She should totally be getting some kind of honor herself, you know. "

"I think that they might have been inclined to offer her some kind of official recognition, except for the fact that all of the security footage from the attack seems to have been altered," Shepard said severely. "You can't make out Buffy's face at all, and no one really believes that a tiny little thing like her could take down a Geth Juggernaut in one punch."

"It's better this way, J-L," Xander replied flatly. "The galaxy's just not ready for the weird yet."

Shepard just shook her head at the Tech Sergeant's obstinacy. "You do realize that a day may come when, ready or not, the galaxy is going to have to deal with the weird."

Xander shuddered. He remembered having this very argument with both Buffy and Willow a long time ago. If Shepard's story about Kaidan's ghostly visit was accurate, then it seemed that the long pause in his first war was finally coming to an end. He wasn't sure if he was fearful for the fate of the galaxy, or excited to finally have something to do after two centuries of no weirdness to deal with.

And as they continued walking into the Council Chambers, they noticed that Wrex and Garrus were waiting for them.

"Wrex, buddy, how are you feeling?" Xander asked, clapping a hand on the old bounty hunter's shoulder.

"I had half a building fall on me after being shot at by half the galaxy…" the old Krogan battlemaster deadpanned. "…I'm feeling pretty good, actually."

"Well, you won't have to slum for the Shadow Broker anymore," Xander shrugged. "You can work for anyone you want, after this."

"You got that right," Wrex nodded. "…and I already know who I want to help next. I'm going home."

"Tuchanka? Why, dude? No offense, but I hear it's a waste."

"None taken," Wrex shrugged. "And, actually, that's why I want to go back. All of this running around and saving the galaxy against nightmarish odds… it's got me thinking." The old Krogan bounty hunter was unusually pensive. "Maybe my father was wrong. Maybe I was right. Maybe… just maybe… if the Krogan can do better… then maybe we can be better."

Shepard, who'd heard the whole thing, nodded as she joined in on the conversation. "That's a good plan, Wrex," she said, smiling. "You guys sure as Hell deserve better, but… hey, that's just my opinion."

"The opinion of a great battlemaster carries much weight." Wrex rumbled.

"Battlemaster? Wrex, this woman should be a warlord." Xander said, pretending to be offended.

"Hey, if it was up to me alone, I'd say we'd declare it right now," Wrex replied, his lips curling into a hideous grin. "But I think that you might have to save the galaxy one or two more times, just to satisfy ALL the Krogan clans."

"Either that, or I could just take out the dissenters." Shepard quipped, a cold gleam in her eye.

"Ahh, spoken like a true Warlord already," Wrex rumbled, wistful nostalgia in his voice. "If only you humans weren't so soft and squishy…"

"Wrex, let's schedule a sparring match and then we'll see who's soft and squishy." Shepard threatened playfully, cracking her knuckles all the same.

"Now that could be fun," Garrus drawled, joining in on the conversation. "How are we going to make any money, anyways? Nobody's stupid enough to beat against Shepard."

"We could handicap the betting," Xander postulated. "Maybe throw in a time factor; she has to beat him in a certain amount of time."

"You're serious," Wrex laughed. "None of you would bet on me?"

"He's right; we need a few gimps to juice the betting a little," Tali speculated.

"Maybe we could use some of the guys on the Vigilance." Garrus replied. "Ari probably knows who the heavy betters are."

Xander rubbed his hands in anticipation of a good scam. "We could say that Shepard's still unsteady after the fight against Saren... "

"I can hear you, you know." Shepard snapped.

"Wrex, if we hook you up with… say, a third of the take," Ashley threw in her own two cents. "…would that sooth your damaged pride after she beats your ass?"

"A third of the take, huh?" Wrex muttered. "Yeah, I could live with that."

Laughing, the group entered the larger chamber and Shepard marveled at the sight. Beings from every known race lined the balconies and crowded the floor. Near the elevator, Chellick grimaced as he gestured the small group forward, marching them through a crowd of C-Sec officers in formal wear.

"Chellick," Shepard sneered. "It's gotta be killing you to have to do this. I mean, Hero to Traitor and back, in less than a week?" she goaded. "That's gotta be gnawin' on your ass something harsh."

"My recent promotion has soothed my sour feelings somewhat." Chellick drawled flatly.

"Promotion?" Shepard asked, caught off-guard.

"You should watch Emily Wong more, boss," Xander replied. "Seems that Executor Pallin's been granted a leave of absence, leaving Chellick here to assume his duties."

"al-Jilani's already at it again," Ashley added. "She's hinted that Armando Bailey was unfairly aced out of being considered for the top job."

"A job that he didn't even want," Chellick contributed. "al-Jilani's only whining because she actually has to work for her C-Sec scoops, now with Pallin gone."

"By the way," Shepard ventured. "…is it my imagination, or is she being flattering in her coverage of the battle?"

Tali giggled. "I hacked her VI assistant, like you wanted, and then her float-cam."

"And?"

"And that woman really needs to learn some discretion when it comes to what she takes a video of." Tali said, shuddering.

Xander sighed. "The twenty-second century and the celebrity sex tape is STILL a big deal? Some things never change."

"Thank God for that," Shepard laughed. "So how long is that going to keep her on the straight and narrow?"

"Oh, I'm sure that she'll eventually get bitchy again," Tali said loftily. "But, for right now, we're getting the benefit of her... enlightened world view."

"al-Jilani getting some…" Xander sighed. "I cannot even begin to try and compute that. The idea alone is beyond imagination."

"I envy your lack of imagination," Tali quipped, a grimace in her voice. "I honestly wish that I could un-see what I have seen."

Xander's omnitool bleeped an incoming message alert at him. He glanced at it briefly. It was from Willow once again, and sparse on the wordage, reading; 'Happy belated birthday. You did good. Hope you enjoy the gift.'

He couldn't help but wonder what kind of gift his uber-powerful Wiccan witch/ridiculously-capable hacker friend had arranged.

Then parade music began to play from the Council Chambers' PA system and the people gathered in the Council Chambers quickly came to attention. Shepard paused, suddenly realizing that she knew this tune. Written by composer John Williams, over two centuries ago, for the first in a series of movies that were still known as the Original Trilogy in every corner of the galaxy in which mankind had taken root. Looking over at Xander, she noticed that he had his eyes closed and had an expression of rapture on his face.

"Xander, how the hell did you-" she sputtered.

"Wasn't me, boss," he whispered, his eyes still closed. "This was all on Willow. I guess that she hacked the protocol database for the occasion. Just act like it's normal."

"This is the bit played at the end, right? When everyone's getting their medals?"

"Shepard, we just saved the entire galaxy from certain doom," Xander grinned. "Can you think of any tune better suited to capture the mood? I think the universe owes us."

The group marched forward down the aisle, a standing ovation following them the entire way. Several humans who recognized the tune seemed confused, but shrugged and kept clapping. After all, the tune was catchy.

Shepard couldn't help but think to herself that Xander was right yet again; if someone's going to save the galaxy, then they might as well celebrate it in style.

**********

**Epilogue: Unexpected Visitors **

Tevos let the door to her quarters close behind her. The medal ceremony had done its job; averting the disastrous PR screwup that Saren's attack had created. Anderson being on the Council would shake things up a bit, but if living a thousand human years taught an Asari anything… well, the lesson was that patience had its own rewards.

Give the public a few months, and they'd move on and find other things to obsess over, leaving the Council races poised to take advantage of the Geth AND Reaper technology that had been left behind. Tech firms, secretly controlled by the various Council members, had already begun a preliminary examination of the wreckage. The discoveries that they were making, would change the course of history for generations to come… that is, if certain reactionary elements could be controlled.

Secretly, the Council had been hoping that Udina would take the Council position. The man was a career politician, with just the right combination of character flaws and ruthless ambition that would've made him easy to manipulate. Tevos had seen to it that several of Udina's favorite dancers at Chora's Den were either on her payroll or owed her favors.

But Anderson? He was that rare beast known as a decent and honorable man; if he had weaknesses, he tried not to indulge them to the point that it affected his work. It was going to take time, but Tevos was sure that she could find some kind of leverage that she could use to control Anderson.

But she had another problem on her mind.

That boy, Technical Sergeant Harris… shaking hands with him at the ceremony had been disturbing.

An honest-to-Goddess immortal… how had the humans managed to hide a secret of this magnitude for so long?

Even Shepard no longer felt… right.

It was nothing that Tevos could put her finger on, exactly, but she could sense that Shepard had changed somehow.

Unfortunately, Shepard had become untouchable. She was too high-profile now, and the press flap resulting from her disappearance would just cause problems.

Harris, however… Harris was a sidekick.

But she'd have to handle him discreetly, of course.

Perhaps… an invitation to Azure, on Illium.

One of the great advantages of controlling a pleasure-paradise resort popular with humans was that what happened on Illium tended to stay on Illium.

No one would ask too many questions about a young human male who went missing after a weekend of excess.

There were several safehouses in nearby systems.

A properly-equipped commando team could have Harris secured, under control, and on his way to Thessia in a few hours.

It wouldn't be imprisonment, exactly, more like… protective custody.

A few weeks of DNA analyses, to isolate the source of his immortality, and then a few years of selective breeding… who knows? He might even enjoy it.

Besides, Tevos' point of view, Harris was being selfish by not sharing his gifts with the one race in the galaxy that could ensure that it was put to better use.

Suddenly, she sensed something behind her. Turning about quickly, her biotics flared in self-defense, but she found herself helpless in the grip of a much-stronger biotic field that lifted her off the ground and kept her there.

A familiar face walked out of the shadows, a cold smile on her face.

"Benezia?" Tevos sputtered. "But… but you're dead. Shepard told us you were dead."

"Shepard told you exactly what you wanted to hear," Matriarch Benezia replied dispassionately. "Like all really good Spectres, she's learned that telling Council members what they WANT to hear is the best way to get them to listen."

The Asari Matriarch calmly sauntered into the center of the room. Tevos found it daunting that Benezia's power and control was so much greater than her own.

"You escaped Noveria…" she realized. "Shepard… let you go?"

"I've kept myself busy," Benezia shrugged. "The Rachni Queen and I have been exchanging thoughts and ideas. She's quite astute; a far better student than you ever were." Sitting down in a recliner and pouring herself a drink, she then mused aloud, "Come to think of it, she's quite a good teacher, too. Her new crop of children will be far superior to the ones that Binary Helix ended up corrupting."

"You're working with the Rachni now?" Tevos sputtered, this time in outrage.

"Working with…? No, she and I have only been engaged in a type of information exchange, but that's not important." Waving her hand, Benezia let Tevos fall to the floor before taking a sip from the drink glass in her free hand.

Once Tevos managed to stand up, she stumbled towards the nearest chair before slumping down upon it as if she was a maiden again. When she'd sat down, so to speak, Benezia continued. "I assume that you've met the boy by now. Shepard's resident immortal?"

"Yes," Tevos nodded. "I have no idea how she managed to hide this from us for so long, but now that we know-"

"Let me guess, Tevos," Benezia interrupted her protege archly. "Protective custody, locking him away in some remote monastery like what we do with the Ardat-Yakshi, and breeding him until your scientists find a way to pass his gifts along to another Asari?"

"I can think of much worse ways for a young man to spend a few decades." Tevos said defensively.

"You'll never get what you want that way. Xander Harris will give his gifts of his own free will, or there will be consequences. Grave consequences," Benezia intoned ominously. "Leave him alone, Tevos. Leave him alone, or you will unleash a force upon this galaxy that is collectively beyond your comprehension."

In spite of the atavistic shiver that ran down her spine at Benezia's warning, Tevos still had something to bring up. "Why should the humans benefit from his secrets?"

"For one thing, he's hidden himself from the humans for as long as he has done so from anyone else," Benezia said dispassionately. "Another thing is that humanity will have much bigger problems to deal with, soon enough."

"What are you talking about?" Tevos frowned.

"There are dark times ahead for us all, Tevos," Benezia mused, taking a sip from her glass. "The Rachni Queen has been hearing rumors that the Collectors are on the move again, and that humanity has drawn attention to itself; dangerous and powerful attention."

Tevos scoffed. "The Collectors? They're just myth."

"Immortals are myths, Tevos, but you met one earlier today," Benezia chided her former protege coldly. "The Reapers are myths, but you were almost killed by one."

Finishing off the last of her drink, Benezia stood up to leave. "Understand this, Tevos. Sometimes, a myth is simply a truth that's too horrible to imagine but too dangerous to be ignored and forgotten. Sometimes, myths and legends are real. So leave the boy alone. For now, at least."

-the end-

_**AN- ...and scene, that was quite the run. and I want to thank each and every reviewer commenter and random hater who helped to make this possible.**__**  
**__**  
**__**When I first started this it was only supposed to be some light comedy, a couple of drabbles and ficlets and some quick jokes but as I read the reviews I was really inspired to push the envelope and I want to thank each and every single one of you for that.**__**  
**__**  
**__**While we are on the topic I want to give props to two writers whose work was a real inspiration**__**  
**__**  
**__**Setrus has done a couple of Mass Effect stories including Shell of Heroism and Spirit of Heroism**__**  
**__**Melaradark has written two stories in her Dark Energy series**__**  
**__**  
**__**You would be doing yourselves a huge disservice if you did not sample both of these amazing writers work.**__**  
**__**  
**__** I would be totally remiss if I didn't give big-ups to my man Reikson who came onboard as a bata for this project in its early stages and really stayed the course.**__**  
**__**  
**__**There is no bigger fan of Mass Effect or Buffy and this story is a hell of a lot better because of it.**__**  
**__**  
**__**in fact let me get him in here for a second.**__**  
**__**  
**__*******__**  
**__*******__**  
**__*******__**  
**__**BN - **__**Coming Soon; the next installment in the Zeppo Effect saga. But, for now... Thanks for reading "Zeppo Effect"**__**  
**__*******__**  
**__*******__**  
**__*******__**  
**__**  
**__**Yeah what he said :-)**_


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